Pakistan President General Musharraf must be a sad man today. He has every reason to be, after the US President George Bush poured cold water on his expectations. In Islamabad, President Bush rejected out of hand his demand for a nuclear deal with Pakistan as he did with India, saying the two are “different countries with different needs and history”. The reference to history was clearly an indication to Pakistan’s unacceptable track record- thanks to the clandestine ways in which its nuclear scientist A.Q. Khan exported nuclear technology to Iran, North Korea and Libya. That Khan is under house arrest now hardly cuts much ice with the Americans who are particular about the non proliferation issue. Pakistan has also not allowed access to any International Agency to quiz Khan which raises suspicions about its intentions on the nuclear issue.

On Kashmir too, the General got a cold shoulder from President Bush. Bush made it clear beyond any doubt that the US can not mediate in the Kashmir issue and that the leadership in India and Pakistan have to “step up” to resolve the issue. The General was looking forward to a more assertive statement by Bush in Islamabad which could give him a handle to keep on harping more and more on Kashmir and his so called “out of the box “ solutions. By doing so, the General has been trying to give an impression to the world community that while he is flexible on the Kashmir issue, it is India that is adopting a rigid attitude and avoiding a resolution of the issue. By now, his Kashmir fixation is too well known to need any further explanation. He did not spare even a venue like Davos which hosted the World Economic Forum recently, by talking about the Kashmir issue.

On terrorism, Bush did recognize the General’s forward movement but qualified it by saying that much more needed to be done to deal with Al Qaida and that the terrorist infrastructure in Pakistan needed to be dismantled. Faced with the formidable challenge to root out global terrorism and having declared Pakistan as a partner in this exercise, Bush has a compulsion to keep the General in good humour. After all, Pakistan is the cradle of terrorism where the outfits are nourished and trained in killing innocent people all over the world.

So go on General till you convince the world about your good intentions in throwing out terrorism from your country.

But the greatest shock that the General must have received from President Bush would have been when he asked the General when did he intend to hold elections in Pakistan and how long would he put on the Army uniform as President of Pakistan. Those who watched the Television screens would have noticed the General’s discomfiture on this account. The General tried his best to give an impression that he would hold elections in 2007 and that he would not violate Pakistan’s constitution as far as the uniform issue was concerned. One wonders which constitution he is talking about. It is he who has been framing and amending the constitution to suit his purpose. What is the guarantee that he will not do so again after 2007 as well!

Significantly, President Bush did also not announce any package for Pakistan which Musharraf has become used to. As against that, soon after Bush left Delhi the US announced its offer to sell F16 and F 18 fighter aircraft to India. The body language that Bush displayed in India was quite different from what was evident in Pakistan. Right from his arrival in India he put on broad smiles, put his arm over Dr. Manmohan Singh’s shoulder and spoke at length about the new thinking in the two countries. In contrast, he demonstrated a stern face in Pakistan and there was hardly any bonhomie.

The message to the General was clear--- that the US is not happy with Pakistan on the lackadaisical manner in which it is dealing with the issue of terrorism, the way it is trying to stonewall inquiries into the smuggling out of nuclear material from Pakistan by A.Q. Khan and continued lack of democracy in Pakistan. The General has to take credible action on all the three fronts to convince the world that he means business.

Until he does so his words will not be taken seriously, whatever he may say. On Kashmir, he must genuinely work towards help creating a public opinion for an acceptable solution of the issue rather than try to hoodwink the world through his misleading statements. He should stop sending terrorists to India to indulge in incidents of killings like in Bangalore and Delhi and stop talking about demilitarization and self rule in Kashmir. Instead, he should address US concerns about democracy and give POK and Northern areas a semblance of it. Also he should stop Human Right violations in Baluchistan and pave the way for an honest and sincere dialogue to settle issues.


Courtesy : Syndicate Features

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