It goes to the credit of Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto that she did not abandon her father’s policy about Kashmir. ZAB was a highly controversial figure in our history, and different people had different reasons to dislike or hate him. But he was also heart-throb of one of the strongest vote-banks created in this country’s history. His even greater distinction lies in the fact that alongwith Dr Abdul Qadeer Khan, he will go down into history as the man who secured Pakistan’s Freedom forever in the face of a massive threat coming from an enemy, five times bigger.
Bhutto had many faults. His hunger for power was phenomenal. But he was not corrupt. And he was a patriot. He recognized the value of Kashmir to Pakistan despite Shimla agreement.
It was Main Nawaz Sharif who started losing Kashmir to India during his second tenure of office. The back-channel diplomacy that culminated in Lahore Yatra of the Indian Prime Minister Vajhpaee was beginning of a huge retreat on the part of Pakistan from its stated position that the Security Council resolutions on Kashmir had to be observed.
This ‘tragic retreat’ continued even more disastrously in the Pervez Musharraf era who had earlier, as architect of ‘Kargal Operation’, practically revived ‘the dead’ issue of Kashmir.
Like Mian Nawaz Sharif, General (r) Pervez Musharraf too was driven by a crazy but unrealistic wish to go down into history as the man who secured the resolution of the Kashmir dispute. I was in Agra when the final round of talks between the Indian Prime Minister and General Musharraf took place. The end result was India’s last minute back-out. India however had scored a great victory by making Pakistan lose substantial ground from its original demand of Plebiscite.
It is India’s good luck that since Bhuttos Pakistan has not known a political figure which understands the value of Kashmir.
In this context, I feel like saluting General Raheel Sharif for having seen to it that our Prime Minister doesn’t capitulate to India because of his ‘tight-hug’ relationship with that monster the world knows as Modi.
