ISLAMABAD, 19 December 2003 — Pakistan offered to drop a 50-year-old demand for a UN-mandated plebiscite over divided Kashmir and meet India “halfway” in a bid for peace on the subcontinent.

President Pervez Musharraf’s proposal opened a new window of opportunity to address one of the world’s most dangerous disputes between the nuclear-armed neighbors, political commentators said, even if massive hurdles remain on the path to peace. All eyes will now be on the planned visit of Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee to Islamabad for a South Asian summit in early January.

In an interview less than three weeks before the summit, Musharraf said late on Wednesday he was prepared to be “bold and flexible” in an attempt to resolve the dispute over Kashmir.

“If we want to resolve this issue, both sides need to talk to each other with flexibility, coming beyond stated positions, meeting halfway somewhere,” he said. “We are prepared to rise to the occasion, India has to be flexible also.”

For more than 50 years, Pakistan has insisted on a plebiscite to allow people in the divided Himalayan region of Kashmir to decide between joining India or Pakistan, a position backed by a series of UN Security Council resolutions in the late 1940s.

“We are for United Nations Security Council Resolutions,” Musharraf said. “However, now we have left that aside.”

Former Indian Foreign Secretary J.N. Dixit said Musharraf’s offer marked an “important shift in policy”.

“He is signifying there will be flexibility in the Pakistani negotiating position,” said Dixit. “We should be able to respond with flexibility and see if we can find a middle ground.”

In Islamabad, Samina Ahmed of the International Crisis Group think tank said the Pakistani military realized it had to give ground if it was to retain any sympathy abroad.

“If they keep on insisting on a plebiscite, it is not going anywhere, and they are also losing ground to India internationally,” she said. “In a way, it is a realization that if they keep on asking for everything they won’t get anything.”

Musharraf said this represented a “very real opportunity” to make peace, but warned India not to throw away the chance by continuing to spurn offers for talks.

“The basis of everything, the basis of a reduction in militancy...is moving forward on a process of dialogue,” he said. “If that political dialogue doesn’t come about, who wins and who loses? It is the moderates who lose and the extremists who win, and that is exactly what has been happening.”

Musharraf refused to be drawn on how to settle the Kashmir dispute, but said any solution must be acceptable to Kashmiris. And he warned India his flexibility should not be seen as weakness.

“I’ll be bold in moving it forward, but if somebody thinks I’ll be bold to give up — no sir, I’m not giving up at all.

“I will not submit to extremist views in Pakistan so I’ll be bold to that extent, but nobody in India should ever think that I’m a person who is going to give up,” he said.

Musharraf said Vajpayee should not miss the chance to discuss Kashmir during January’s summit, but said he would not be pleading for an audience with the Indian leader.

“We have come to a stage where there is a thaw in relations, where there is expectation on both sides in the people,” he said. “If the leadership doesn’t rise to the occasion, it is a pity and I think we’ll disappoint our public again.”

Analysts warned against expecting too much from the summit, with progress always more difficult in the glare of the media spotlight. Instead, there are hopes the two sides might begin a lower-level dialogue in February or March. But the path to peace looks a long and dangerous one.

Mistrust and outright hostility run deep between the South Asian rivals, and Musharraf’s anger at his arch-foe often boiled over in the interview, as he railed against New Delhi’s intransigence and the “arrogance of power”.

“Unfortunately, magnanimity has to come from the bigger and the stronger,” he said.

“But they don’t show any magnanimity, they lack magnanimity,” Pakistan’s military ruler said.

He also criticized India for taking advantage of the cease-fire to accelerate construction of a fence along the Line of Control dividing Kashmir, a move he said showed “insincerity” about seeking a peaceful solution.

Former Pakistani Foreign Secretary Tanvir Ahmed Khan said it was far from clear if India was in a mood to compromise.

“India is under no great pressure to make any significant shifts in its posture on Kashmir,” he said. “It is by no means certain India would engage in a sustained dialogue on Kashmir. Their calculation is that they have the upper hand.”

Commentators say there is no guarantee the cease-fire will hold through next spring when snows melt on the mountain passes and the rebels who have been battling security forces in Indian-held Kashmir since 1989 traditionally try to cross in.

With elections looming in India next year, India’s room for maneuver looks limited, analysts say. Musharraf, meanwhile, is fighting his own battle to win domestic political legitimacy four years after seizing power in a bloodless coup.

“Both sides have been using this issue for so long for domestic politics, to do a radical U-turn they would have to prepare public opinion,” Ahmed said.

“A road map is still a long, long way off.”