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Sharief briefs generals, ministers

Pakistani Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief briefed top military and Cabinet officials today on the controversial plan agreed to in Washington to get what his government claims are Kashmiri freedom-fighters to withdraw from the Indian side of the Line of Control in Kashmir.

The meeting was attended by the army chief, General Pervez Musharraf, the intelligence chiefs, Foreign Minister Sartaj Aziz and other top political and military officials. No statement was expected.

Militant organisations have called the weekend decision with United States President Bill Clinton a sellout of their ten-year guerrilla campaign in Kashmir and vowed to continue to fight Indian troops in the Kargil-Drass sector and take more ground.

Aziz too had said yesterday that Pakistan could only appeal to the militants to withdraw and linked their departure to progress on the 52-year Indo-Pakistan dispute over Kashmir, cause of two of the rivals' three post-Independence wars.

His suggestion flew in the face of the firm Indian stand that there can be no talks until the invading force withdraws behind the LoC.

Pakistan's next move is unclear. Sharief will preside over a session of the country's top political-military body, the defence committee of the Cabinet, tomorrow and hold a full Cabinet session on Saturday, the sources said.

There was no confirmation of media reports that Sharief, who rarely holds press conferences, would address the nation to explain what the Opposition and the militants are calling an "abrupt U-turn" on his government's part.

He is expected to claim that Pakistan has successfully internationalised the Kashmir dispute and won a pledge from Clinton to take personal interest in getting the Indo-Pakistani peace talks re-started.

But Pakistani commentators said India's staunch refusal to accept any kind of mediation from Washington or elsewhere undermines the strength of Clinton's pledge.

"After Kargil is restored to India, the US president will be in no position to persuade India to start any talks, leave alone grant any concessions to Pakistan... India can then thumb its nose at the US if it wants to,'' said The Nation, a newspaper published from Lahore.

Four days after the agreement, there has been no sign of the invading forces withdrawing and every indication that India will continue to pound their hilltop hideaways.

"There has been some relocation of the fighters, but no withdrawal," said one source. "They may have switched positions as the Indians encircle some hills, but there's no pullout."

The sources said any orderly withdrawal would have to be agreed to by the Indian and Pakistani army chiefs, but there had been no indication to date of any talks between the two sides apart from routine weekly discussions.

Military sources said the invaders could probably survive on the Kargil peaks until October at the latest when temperatures plunge to minus 40 degrees Celsius. Thereafter they will have to withdraw to lower regions.

UNI

EARLIER REPORT:
Sharief to brief Cabinet, military on talks with Clinton

The Kargil Crisis

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