ISLAMABAD, 13 July — Pakistan’s top military commanders unanimously resolved yesterday that genuine progress could be achieved through talks if India sincerely wanted to resolve the Kashmir dispute. The consensus view on this point emerged in a special Corps Commanders Conference held here at the General Headquarters.
President and Chief Executive Gen. Pervez Musharraf chaired the meeting, which was considered last of the series of consultative meetings Musharraf held in National Security Council, and Cabinet, and with politicians, top media persons, Kashmiri leaders, Ulema and mushaikah, students, women representatives, intellectuals, leaders of religious minorities and others on his India visit.
“The participants of the special Corps Commanders Conference,” said the official statement, “fully endorsed the efforts of the president to being peace and stability to the subcontinent and South Asia by addressing and trying to resolve the Kashmir dispute that has bedeviled relations between India and Pakistan for over four decades.”
All Corps Commanders and Principle Staff Officers attended the conference, and they received comprehensive briefings from Foreign Minister Abdul Sattar and Secretary Foreign Affairs Inamul Haq.
Musharraf leaves for New Delhi on Saturday for talks with Vajpayee in the Taj Mahal city of Agra on Sunday. There is no structured agenda for the summit which would restore official contacts between the newly nuclear-armed countries after a two-year freeze. Musharraf presided over the conference, at which it was agreed that he was “addressing and trying to resolve the Kashmir dispute that has bedeviled relations between India and Pakistan for over four decades”.
The corps commanders, the military’s mouthpiece organ Inter-Services Public Relations (ISPR) said, “were unanimous in their view that if India sincerely wanted to resolve the Kashmir dispute, genuine progress could be achieved through talks”.
But most Pakistanis are pessimistic about the summit with more than half believing it will make no difference to bilateral relations, a survey showed yesterday. Gallup Pakistan said a survey of some 1,500 households in urban and rural areas found only 31 percent of respondents expecting an improvement in relations between the two following the summit.
Some 53 percent said the meeting between Musharraf and Vajpayee would amount to nothing, while 16 percent believed it could even lead to a deterioration in relations. On Kashmir only 16 percent expected any progress. “Notwithstanding low expectations about the outcome of the summit, there is considerable interest in the proceedings and very few (respondents) shied away from giving their opinions,” Gallup Pakistan said in a statement.
“Even though India is the most distrusted nation in Pakistan, there is considerable support for peace initiatives.” It said 60 percent of Pakistanis distrusted India and only 10 percent trusted it. Some 47 percent opposed improved trade relations with India, 54 percent were against educational exchanges and 58 percent did not want to see cultural exchanges.
