From Yahoo.news
Oct 9
New Delhi, Oct 8 (IANS) Former Pakistan president Pervez Musharraf's formula to improve India-Pakistan ties by first resolving the Siachen and Sir Creek issues before tackling the Kashmir dispute may have some merit, but its timing shows that he is merely trying to get into the limelight, strategic affairs experts said here Friday.
'What he says has some merit, but more than that, it is the timing of the statement which is of primary interest,' said Savita Pande, professor of South Asian Studies at Jawaharlal Nehru University.
Musharraf told the Hindustan Times in London Thursday that India-Pakistan ties could be improved immediately by focussing on the Siachen and Sir Creek disputes and dealing with Kashmir later.
Pande said that in both in the case of Sir Creek and Siachen, India and Pakistan had come quite close to resolution but the last mile was still difficult technically and politically. 'Frankly, what Musharraf has said is nothing new,' she said.
B. Raman, a former additional secretary in the cabinet secretariat, said that Musharraf carried 'no weight'. 'He is thoroughly unpopular in Pakistan. He cannot even step into Pakistan while the current chief justice of Pakistan is there,' he said.
'He just want to show that he is still there and get the limelight,' said Raman.
'It is unsolicited advice from a former dictator who has lost all his credibility,' Ajai Sahni, executive director of New Delhi-based Institute of Conflict Management, told IANS.
'First of all, Musharaf has lost all credibility. He is making a desperate attempt to gain attention and support by launching a political party and making statements. He is not passing on any great wisdom.'
He said the former military ruler had driven his country to a infinitely worse condition. 'His wrong policies worsened the situation in Pakistan and the entire South Asia.'
Sahni said India did not need advice from a self-confessed supporter of terrorism like Musharraf.
In an interview to Der Spiegel, Musharraf had said that Pakistan had helped in training militants, but he later clarified that the magazine drew the 'wrong meaning of his statement'.
E.N. Rammohan, former director general of the Border Security Force(BSF) and a security expert, said: 'Siachen is not a major dispute legally. Musharraf is attempting to exaggerate the issue and earn brownie points.'
Rammohan, who had served in Jammu and Kashmir, said that the Siachen dispute was 'manufactured and exaggerated by the Pakistani side'.
The Siachen glacier is the highest battlefield in the world.
'When the Line of Control (LcC) was demarcated, the demarcation on the glacier was done without much dispute. However, Pakistan created confusion later and has involved China in the dispute too by including the Karakoram Pass issue,' Rammohan said.
Musharraf is trying to exaggerate several minor issues in the guise of resolving the Kashmir problem, he added.
--Indo-Asian New Service
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