[Reader-list] Pakistan's Post Musharraf Policy by Murtaza Shibli

[Kashmir Affairs]

Dear friends,
I am enclosing my essay on the possible new developments on Pakistan's Kashmir policy. The whole essay is attached as pdf, but i am also putting a summary below as well.
best,
Murtaza Shibli
‘Real Democracy’: Pakistan’s Post-Musharraf Kashmir Policy 
    Murtaza Shibli
  Editor
        Kashmir Affairs, London [www.kashmiraffairs.org]
 
 
  ‘Era of real democracy has begun in the country.’[1]
                                                                                                  Pervez Musharraf 
       Summary
  The recently concluded elections in Pakistan have led to the decline in the fortunes of the General-turned-President Pervez Musharraf. Although he is still hanging onto power thanks to open American support, his influence on the country’s political decision making has weakened significantly. Much before the new government headed by Prime Minister Makhdoom Syed Yousuf Raza Gilani took over; Musharraf’s much publicised Kashmir Policy was on the wane. There seems to be a consensus evolving among the leading politicians and the Army about the unsuitability of the current Kashmir policy that saw Pakistan retreating from its support for the UN Resolutions and right to self determination. Even Musharraf’s former political partners and colleagues from the Pakistan Muslim League (Q) have taken umbrage with the beleaguered President on the issue. 
    Sensing the mood, the pro-Musharraf Kashmiri groups and activists  have gone on defensive; shifting their allegiances in order to stay relevant in the new political milieu.  Some of them have apologised for their support to Musharraf or criticized him for his ‘failed’ Kashmir policy. Although pro-Pakistan and anti-Musharraf Kashmiri leaders, including the Hurriyat Conference (G) leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, are jubilant over the developments, Kashmiris are watching with caution.  Pakistani politicians like Asif Zardari,  Mian Nawaz Sharif and others  have issued some statements that smack of traditional rhetoric, while the new Army Chief General Pervez Ashfaq Kayani has also hinted at the policy shift. Despite all this,  there isn’t much Pakistan can do with regards to Kashmir;  given its current internal crisis and unprecedented American pressure. Pakistan cannot afford to cease the ‘peace process’, but it might gradually retreat to its traditional position; increase
 its diplomatic efforts and seek international mediation and offer  limited but symbolic support for the Kashmiri resistance. The progress on the issue can only be achieved if India is willing to shift from its maximalist position and offer some concrete and sensible options for the solution of the problem. Otherwise, the thaw that was achieved during the last few years in India-Pakistan relations cannot be sustained for long and, as in the past, Kashmir could vitiate the atmosphere with dangerous consequences.
  
  
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      [1] The News, Pakistan, 24 March 2008
  
  
  

       
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