'Golden opportunity on Kashmir missed during Musharraf's rule'

London, Jun 9 (PTI) A "golden opportunity" was missed to
resolve the Kashmir issue when General Parvez Musharraf was in
power in Pakistan, India's northern state Jammu and Kashmir's
new Chief Minister Omar Abdullah has said.

"There is no doubt that we missed a golden opportunity
with General Musharraf in power in Pakistan. It's unlikely
that we are going to see a leadership with that degree of
control over the entire situation in Pakistan," Abdullah told
London-based 'Financial Express' in an interview.

But even then, Abdullah felt that it would be unfair to
suggest that just because Pakistan is a democracy that they
cannot deliver on a dialogue process.

"India is a democracy. Pakistan is a democracy," he said,
"If we can, there is no reason why they cannot. It's just a
case of institution building," the Kashmir Chief Minister said
while favouring opening a dialogue process with Islamabad.

Omar's comment on an agreement on Kashmir came just a day
after former Pakistan President Musharraf claimed that New
Delhi and Islamabad were close to a pact during his regime.

"My proposal was the demilitarisation of the disputed
area, self-governance and a mutual overwatch," Musharraf had
said.

He said, "the key irritant was the Line of Control which
the Indians wanted to make permanent. I said we should make it
irrelevant by opening transit routes. And that is where the
situation stands."

Omar said it was very clear that the Pakistani Army had
no interest in destabilising the civilian administration, "so
possibly, that is a window of opportunity for us again".

To a question whether the Pakistan army has an interest
in resolving the Kashmir issue once for all, Abdullah said
"I'd like to believe so. Gen Musharraf was the chief of army
staff when he tried his level best to do it. So I am sure he
was carrying his army behind him when he was doing this."

"There are vested interests on both sides," the chief
minister warned and emphasised that governments in both
Islamabad and New Delhi should neutralise and marginalised
these vested interests.

"There are pockets in the polity, in the establishment.
The amount of money that flows in the name of Kashmir even
into the polity of the state... it would be unfair to blame
just the army or bureaucracy or the intelligence... There are
any number of political players who would find themselves out
of pocket if they did not have the Kashmir issue to sell to
people," Omar said. PTI HSR
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