Generally Speaking

Two days ago, President Musharraf made an announcement that was nothing shortof 7.5 on the Richter Scale of Dramatic Political Announcements

As he surveyed the ruins of Muzaffarabad, he was questioned by the press onthe nature of co-operation he envisaged with India as Islamabad tackled thedisaster that confronted it. "We will allow any number of people comingacross the Line of Control to meet their relatives and assist withreconstruction," he said. The procedure for allowing people from across theLoC needed to be formalised with India, he added. He said his country was readyto allow political leaders from both sides of the divide to interact and assisteach other. He also appealed to India to agree to the plan.

New Delhi promptly upheld the principle of what the general was suggestingbut said that it awaited details of how this could be implemented practically.

But Musharraf's announcement raises a number of questions.

• Was it an off the cuff remark?
  
  
• Would this access to assist in relief and reconstruction be limited to Kashmiris?
  
  
• How could politicians - the kind that Musharraf recognises to be such in Jammu and Kashmir - help in relief and reconstruction?
  
  
• Is the remark consistent with the other kinds of assistance that Pakistan has accepted from India?

Two days later, there has not been a squeak out of either New Delhi orIslamabad in terms of pushing forward on the Musharraf proposals. This could beput down, firstly, to practical difficulties in implementing these proposalsimmediately. But more importantly, there remains the question of merit ofthe suggestion, given the task that Musharraf has to engage in while reachingrelief and rehabilitation to PoK. Reconstruction will come much later.

In terms of access to PoK, Musharraf has to indicate which roads can be usedfor this purpose and which bridges. There is none to speak of, at this moment.But there has been talk of running a bus between Poonch and Rawalkot. Could thisroad be operationalised quickly enough? Could points be identified in Rajouri orTanghdar? First task would therefore be to identify the points where thiscrossing could happen. Even the Wagah-Attari border is not built for large-scalemovement of goods and service.

The second task is to identify the modality of what kind of travel documentsto allow for this. Would it involve the process that is applicable for thosetravelling in the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus? Under that process, a longtime elapses between application to travel and the permission to travel.

The question also arises: who qualifies for travel? The subtext is quiteclear. It is a Kashmiri and a Kashmiri alone who will qualify for travel, goingby present indications. In this case, it would be natural to narrow theKashmiris who would travel to divided families, and relatives therein. And ofcourse, the politicians, mainly the Hurriyat. (Yaseen Mallik has wisely used hispassport to travel to Lahore and thence forward in his mission of relief andrehabilitation.) At a time like this, what value would it bring to the situationby letting local politicians crisscross the LoC like so many FlorenceNightingales? It would muddy the issue just as Musharraf seems to be doing.

But if the scope is narrowed to this extent, the question to ask is whatpractical purpose would this serve in terms of providing relief and assistanceand in reconstruction of PoK? It is politically incorrect to ask this, but it ispertinent.How would the relatives be more qualified to provide assistance,except mainly in emotional terms? What is of more pressing need in PoK aremedical teams, relief and rehabilitation specialists, food, shelter from thebitter cold and rain.

It is now twelve days since the quake struck. There has been an immense lossof life amidst the debris of the quake. The onset of winter and the completeabsence of any kind of meaningful presence of the army/administration in theseareas are not going to make it easy for those who survived the actual quake tosurvive the cold, hunger and diseases that lurk. It is a task of staggeringproportions, considering that at least a hundred thousand people have perished.How would the relatives be better placed to help than those who are qualified tohelp at a time like this?

One anecdote will illustrate the magnitude of the quake, if only inferentially.When the earthquake struck, there were 54 passengers from India who had gone onthe Srinagar-Muzaffarabad bus service to the other side of Kashmir. So far only13 have been traced. Seven were rescued, one died, two are in a hospital inIslamabad. And three walked back along the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road. Of therest there has been no clue as to their whereabouts. The ones who wererescued had been barely 20 km from Muzaffarabad when the quake struck.

Afterwards there had been no sign of administration or the army anywhere.When they finally could, they called their relatives on this side of the LoC anddescribed the chaos. Word got to Delhi, and, three days afterwards, New Delhioffered to fly a helicopter out to rescue them. Pakistan said they would get thearmy to rescue them, and to its credit this was done. But when the copter gotthere, there was so much chaos because so many people clamoured to get on boardthat the mission had to be put off for the next day so they could rescue thesepeople barely an hour's drive from Muzaffarabad, 20 km away. Imagine thesituation in more remote parts.

For someone who claims he has several ready-made solutions for Jammu andKashmir, Musharraf has come across as alarmingly incapable of showing someimagination to deal with the situation. He must separate politics over Kashmirfrom the immediate requirement for relief and rehabilitation. Otherwise he willgive credence to the suspicions that the only thing the Pakistani army is goodfor is to overthrow civilian politicians from time to time. And nothing else.

P.S: As we were about to upload this piece, came news of the general'sinterview to CNN where he is again reported as saying that "the interaction between the people may facilitate progress towards resolution of the decades-oldJammu and Kashmir dispute between Pakistan and India" and that "if the people come intoact [sic], let people generate some kind of solutions for themselves". Ifthis is truly what he believes, it begs the question: Why has Pakistan not shownany movement - for more than a year - on the Indian proposal to at leastprovide for a meeting point for separated families on two sides of the LoC?