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COVER STORY: INDO-PAK SUMMIT
Tough Task Ahead
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"The
summit showed that politicians can come up with agreements but declarations
are difficult for generals."
Benazir Bhutto, president, Pakistan People's
Party
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"The
much-hyped visit was a political gimmick. In Delhi his attention
was on his haveli and in Agra on the Taj Mahal."
Nawaz Sharif, deposed prime minister
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Musharraf's task
in the coming months will be to gauge the depth of support for these views
and to examine how much room he has to be flexible in the next round of
negotiations, whenever it takes place. His priority will be to keep Kashmir
as the focus of future negotiations and keep on board the militant groups
while preparing to compromise. According to Ejaz Gilani, head of the Gallup
polling organisation, around 25 per cent of Pakistan's 140 million people
support the militants in their fight in Kashmir. Perhaps the only voice
of criticism to Musharraf's performance so far has come from the politicians,
already at odds with a military regime that arrests them when they try
to hold demonstrations and one that has finally dissolved the parliaments.
Benazir Bhutto, a former prime minister now living in self-exile in London
and Dubai, was quick to condemn Musharraf for walking away from Agra "in
a huff". It was 29 years ago when her civilian head of state father,
Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, signed an agreement at Simla with Indira Gandhi.
"Some hoped that Musharraf in a sherwani would be a born-again peacemaker,"
said Bhutto. But he was hampered by his past and his dependence on a military
constituency wedded to militancy since the Afghan jehad days. "The
summit showed that politicians can come up with agreements but declarations
are difficult for generals." No less scathing was Nawaz Sharif, the
deposed prime minister who now lives in exile in Saudi Arabia. "The
much-hyped visit was a political gimmick. In Delhi his attention was on
his ancestral home and in Agra it was on the Taj Mahal," he mocked.
Yet neither Bhutto nor Sharif appears poised
to return to Pakistan. In any case, a considerable disenchantment lingers
with the politicians of the past decade. Now the attention is on the local
elections, which culminate next month with the devolution of power unprecedented
in the country. Says Gilani: "Musharraf is friendless but tolerable
compared to previous governments, all of which had sizeable support. My
reading is that the Agra visit will help him improve his standing. He
was confident and presented Pakistan's case in a reasonable manner."
And this perhaps is Musharraf's key achievement.
For, just a year ago the General was maligned abroad as an army chief
who seized power in a coup and promptly jailed leading politicians. He
was failing to turn around the economy and his popularity was slumping.
Today the picture has reversed.
In the days before he left for the Agra Summit
Musharraf effortlessly manoeuvred himself into a new position of power.
And the obedient Pakistani press hardly complained.
Yet the contradictions deepen. As Musharraf
makes himself more powerful, he continues to promise to relinquish power
by holding elections before October next year, in line with a Supreme
Court ruling. Three days before flying to India he received approval from
the International Monetary Fund in the form of a handsome $131 million
cheque. It seems the once-hostile West is likely to turn a blind eye to
Musharraf's slowly tightening grip on power and give him increasing support.
Clearly, the hope is that when he leaves the next summit talks it will
be with a flourish and a joint declaration in his hand.
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