Round The World

New Delhi, 14 October 2008

Zardari’s Remarks

MAVERICK OR NOVICE PRESIDENT?

By Monish Tourangbam

School of International Studies (JNU)

The question that comes instantly to mind after reading Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari’s remarks on Kashmiri militants is –“Is he serious?” It seems too early to be certain in decoding the real motive and intention of Zardari in passing those remarks. Is he simply inexperienced and immature in the nuances of India-Pakistan relations? Is he a vengeful husband, out to take terrorism head-on after his wife and Pakistan’s former premier, Benazir Bhutto became a victim last year? Is he trying too much in projecting an “all new Pakistan”, staying clear of everything that former President Pervez Musharraf stood for? As of now, true to the tradition of India-Pakistan relations, it’s not so simple to discern.

In an interview to the Wall Street Journal while in New York, Zardari had termed the militants operating in Jammu and Kashmir as “terrorists,” the first admission by any top Pakistani leader. It is worth recalling that Musharraf in his last press conference had termed the militants as “freedom fighters”, saying that Pakistan will continue “moral and diplomatic” support to their cause.

“India has never been a threat to Pakistan. I, for one, and our democratic government is not scared of Indian influence abroad,” Zardari further added during the interview. He dished out these unsettling comments days after his maiden meeting with the Prime Minister Manmohan Singh on the sidelines of the U.N. General Assembly meeting in New York.

On the larger issue of India-U.S. relations, he was diplomatically more correct and less controversial. Quizzed on the now-inked Indo-U.S. nuclear deal, Zardari said he had no objection to it, so long as Pakistan was treated at “par” and that there was no reason to grudge the largest democracy in the world getting friendly with one of the oldest democracies. Reflecting on the need for better ties with New Delhi, he said “there is no other economic survival for nations like us. We have to trade with our neighbours first.”

This is not the first time, though, that Zardari has made comments contradicting the core stance of Pakistan’s policy toward India. In March, as chief of the Pakistan People’s Party, he had said that the ties between the two countries should not be held “hostage” to the Kashmir issue, which should be left for future generations to decide, undoubtedly raising some eyebrows. “Pakistanis will reject any government that overlooks the Kashmir dispute and seeks to please the US and India”, was a prompt reaction from the former chief of Lashker-e-Toeba Hafiz Muhammad Saeed to Zardari's comments.

Although question marks remain over the motive behind his comments on militants in Jammu and Kashmir, President Zardari for better or worse has managed to be the centre of attention, both at home and in India. While welcoming Zardari’s comments, the Minister of State for External Affairs, Anand Sharma, hoped that the neighbouring country would honour its words through “action”. “President Zardari’s statement describing militants in Jammu and Kashmir as terrorists, a statement made, perhaps, for the first time by a top Pakistani leader which is in contrast with its earlier position of terming militants as jehadis, is confirmation of India’s assertions all these years,” Sharma told reporters in Shimla.

The BJP too welcomed Zardari’s statement, hoping it would usher in a new chapter in India-Pakistan relationship. Its spokesperson Rajiv Pratap Rudy said the remarks perhaps will pave a firm foundation for bridging the divide between the nations. "It reminds us of the peace initiative endeavoured by Atal Bihari Vajpayee during the NDA regime," he added.

However, the statement has been received differently both in Pakistan and Jammu and Kashmir. The Opposition in Pakistan, former premier Nawaz Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League (N) slammed the President for his remark. “We take exception to his statement,” its spokesman Siddique-ul-Farooq told Dawn News channel and added that the PML-N would raise the issue in Parliament. Farooq said the UN resolutions on Kashmir, the Shimla Accord and the February 23, 1999 Lahore accord signed by the then Premier Sharif and Prime Minister Vajpayee provided the “only solution” to the dragging Kashmir dispute.

Maulana Fazlur Rehman, leader of the Jamiat-e-Ulema Islami, who also heads the parliamentary committee on Kashmir, told BBC’s Urdu service that, “We will certainly ask him to take back his words. It’s alright that he is the President of our country, but when it comes to making statements and choosing his words, perhaps he  needs a little more experience.” Rehman also tried to moderate the issue saying that since militant movements across the globe were dubbed as terrorists, Zardari "may have uttered such words under the same influence."

Back in J&K, the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) President, Mehbooba Mufti dismissed Zardari's statement as “protesters in Kashmir cannot be termed as terrorists”. Likewise, the chairman of Hurriyat Conference (G), Syed Ali Shah Geelani, said "Our youth were compelled to launch the armed resistance, as India showed no flexibility and kept on ignoring the demand for holding plebiscite in J&K. The Kashmiris are not terrorists but freedom fighters. I want to remind the Pakistan president that Kashmiris have been fighting for their right to self- determination since 1947 and that our struggle was peaceful till 1990."

On October 6, over 400 protestors in Kashmir’s Baramulla town defied the curfew imposed a day earlier, and raised slogans against Zardari for his remarks. The agitators burnt the Pakistani president’s effigy before dispersing peacefully. Clearly, it was for the first time that an effigy of a Pakistani ruler had been set ablaze in the Valley since April 1979.

Interestingly, a day after his comments triggered protests, President Zardari in a case of typical “political amnesia”, backtracked on his remarks on the militants, saying there is no change in Pakistan's Kashmir policy. In retrospect, Zardari probably would not fancy taking the risk of foregoing a leverage point such as the Jammu and Kashmir issue in India-Pakistan relations. In an official statement, the Pakistan government soon clarified Zardari's stand. It asserted that the President has never called the legitimate struggle of Kashmiris "an expression of terrorism."

In the statement, Information Minister Sherry Rehman said Pakistan was committed to the Kashmiri people's right for self-determination: “All his statements on India should be viewed in the context of Pakistan's current bilateral relations with that country.” Thus, when reality struck and political rhetoric boiled down, it was business as usual as Pakistan expressed “serious concerns” over Siachen and the sharing of river waters. ---INFA

(Copyright, India News and Feature Alliance)