Need to reinvent strategy on Kashmir, Mushahid Hussain

Opinion, July 2003, www.aljazeerah.info

Need to reinvent strategy on Kashmir

Mushahid Hussain

Gulf New, 30-07-2003

By a remarkable coincidence, the Kashmir question was brought to the heartland of American politics with the convening of an international peace conference at Washington's Capitol Hill at the same time that Palestine is on America's front-burner, with visits to the U.S. capital by Palestinian Prime Ministers Mahmoud Abbas and his Israeli counterpart Ariel Sharon.

India was represented by an intellectual - Mahatma Gandhi's grandson, Rajmohan Gandhi - and a politician - Dr. Subramaniam Swamy - while there were also two Kashmiri men of courage and convictions, journalist Ved Bhasin, Editor of Jammu's Kashmir Times, and the exiled activist, Dr. Ayub Thakur. American participants included the eminent historian and America's leading expert on South Asian history, Professor Stanley Wolpert.

Wolpert, who already has biographies of Quaid-e-Azam Mohammed Ali Jinnah, Nehru and Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, has now published his study on Gandhi's life, where he refers to Gandhi's little-known views on Kashmir.

After a visit to Kashmir, Gandhi declared on July 29, 1947: "The people of Kashmir should be asked whether they want to join Pakistan or India. Let them do as they want. The ruler is nothing. The people are everything," adding, "the real Sovereign of the State are the people of the State. If the ruler is not a servant of the people then he is not the ruler."

In the context of Kashmir, there is an interesting development in the domestic political outlook of Pakistan. An absence of a political constituency for confrontation with India, reinforced since September 11, 2001, propelled America to the region, has meant that all the mainstream Pakistani political forces seek better ties with India and a solution of Kashmir but through a peace based on justice.

In this regard, the visit of MMA leader Maulana Fazlur Rahman to India has had positive results from the perspective of Pakistan's interests and image. His visit helped negate the propaganda that the religious parties in Pakistan are an impediment to either normalisation of relations with India or a peaceful Kashmir settlement.

But challenges on Kashmir lie ahead. Three areas would be key for Pakistan's political, diplomatic and media "battle" for Kashmir. First, the United States, whose role as a facilitator has been accepted by India.

But what has Pakistan done to influence America's Kashmir policy? Whatever America says or does on Kashmir should not be meekly accepted by Pakistan as a fait accompli. The U.S., for instance, has hardly any well-thought out policy towards Kashmir, other than to act as a "fire brigade", dousing fires in moments of crises.

Pakistan should learn from U.S. pragmatism on Palestine, and seek its extension to Kashmir. The Washington Times reported on July 25 that "the Bush Administration, in a gesture to visiting Palestinian Prime Minister Mahmoud Abbas, softened its stance on Hamas, saying it could survive if it transformed into a purely political organisation".

Only last month, U.S. Secretary of State Colin Powell had blasted Hamas as an "enemy of peace", but on July 25, he changed his tune, praising the "social wing" of Hamas for doing "things for people in need".

The moral of the story: if the U.S. can do U-turns on Palestine to protect its interests, so too on Kashmir provided Pakistan is able to push the case on Kashmir with tenacity and reason.

Second, instead of being hostage to bureaucratic briefs, imagination and innovation is called for in both the form and substance of Pakistan's promotion of its Kashmir cause. It was pointed out at the Kashmir Conference on Capitol Hill that if the Indians were really smart they would call Pakistan's bluff and accept the UN resolutions regarding a plebiscite on Kashmir, taking Pakistan by complete surprise, with Islamabad probably not sure how to respond in such a scenario!

This actually happened in the case of Afghanistan with Gorbachev in 1986. He surprised Pakistan by announcing that the Red Army was ready to unilaterally leave Afghanistan within a specified time-frame, and Islamabad was so shaken up by this announcement that General Zia immediately changed positions, seeking an interim government prior to withdrawal, in effect, asking the Russians to stay on in Afghanistan for some more time.

When it comes to international legitimacy on Kashmir, why has Pakistan never mentioned the last UN Security Council resolution, number 1172, that refers to Kashmir, unanimously passed on June 6, 1998?

Merely because the resolution condemned both India and Pakistan for going nuclear, although the fifth and sixth paragraphs of the Resolution 1172 urge "India and Pakistan to resume the dialogue between them on all outstanding issues, particularly on all matters pertaining to peace and security, in order to remove the tensions between them, and encourages them to find mutually acceptable solutions that address the root causes of those tensions, including Kashmir, (and) welcomes the efforts of the Secretary General to encourage India and Pakistan to enter into dialogue."

Finally, Pakistan has to develop the will, vision and creative diplomacy on the Kashmir cause, seeking a settlement compatible with Kashmiri aspirations, the interests of Pakistan and of India. The bottom-line being a change in the status quo on Kashmir.

The writer is a former Minister of Information and is currently a member of Pakistan's Upper House, the Senate. He can be contacted at mhussain@gulfnews.com

Earth, a planet hungry for peace

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03).

The Israeli apartheid (security) wall around Palestinian population centers in the West Bank (Ran Cohen, pmc, 5/24/03).