archive: Sharief digging his own grave: ex-ISI chief
Sharief digging his own grave: ex-ISI chief
UNI
Rediff on Net
July 6, 1999
Title: Sharief digging his own grave: ex-ISI chief
Author: UNI
Publication: Rediff on Net
Date: July 6, 1999
A former Pakistani spymaster today said that Prime Minister Nawaz
Sharief risked ''considerable danger'' to his political future by
agreeing to a withdrawal of militants from the Kargil sector of Jammu
and Kashmir.
''This is not practical, this is unrealistic,'' retired army
lieutenant-general Hamid Gul said, referring to Sharief's accord with
American President Bill Clinton.
''It is not going to push the chances of war back, but will rather
bring them closer. This cannot be implemented,'' said Gul, a former
chief of Pakistan's Inter Service Intelligence.
Asked if the agreement posed political dangers to Sharief's
government, he said: ''I think there is a considerable danger because
I think Nawaz Sharief has scuttled his own mandate by going against
the wishes of the nation.''
Gul, who has been close to the Kashmiri militants, predicted that most
Pakistanis would oppose yesterday's Clinton-Sharief agreement.
''It is not confined to one party,'' he said of opposition to the
accord. ''On this there is no divided opinion. The only division now
exists between Nawaz Sharief and the rest of the nation.''
Clinton and Sharief reached the agreement in Washington. US officials
said it required the militants to withdraw from strategic heights in
the Kargil-Drass sector.
A Pakistani foreign ministry spokesman said Islamabad, which says it
has no control over the militants, would issue an appeal to them to
end fighting because ''they have achieved their purpose of
highlighting the Kashmir dispute''.
''This appeal will fall on deaf ears and it will only alienate the
freedom fighters and the government of Pakistan,'' Gul said.
Some of the militant groups say they will not withdraw and a
right-wing Islamic party has called for protests tomorrow.
''The agreement is rather cowboyish and it is not going to produce any
result,'' Gul remarked.
The agreement calls for the restoration of the LoC under the 1972
Shimla accord and for bilateral talks.
Gul said it would be ''extremely wishful'' to push Kashmiris in this
direction ''now when the ground reality is shifting in favour of their
liberation.''
''It's a pipe dream, and I don't think it is going to meet any success
at all,'' Gul concluded.
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