Mohan:
I found Dawn, the Pakistani Newspaper, as one of the best for coverage of news etc. A high-quality newspaper.
Here is an article written by Former Air Marshal Asgar Khan and Haider.
dawn.com
Excerpts are below
The 1971 war against India was another adventure, which made no political or military sense. In political terms, it struck at the root of the concept of Pakistan. In military terms, it was a folly of
Himalayan proportions.
The government claims that the ceasefire in Kargil was a military triumph. It is claimed that the object of the whole exercise was to internationalize the issue, and that this has been achieved. We have certainly internationalized the issue but what has been the result? All major powers, including our old ally China, told us to get back to the line of control and to ask the Mujahideen to do likewise.
This we have done in the timeframe laid down. Moreover the line of control has been given sanctity which it did not previously enjoy and we have shown to the world that the 'Mujahideen', if not controlled by us, are certainly amenable to our advice. It will, therefore, henceforth be assumed that their activities inside Indian-occupied Kashmir, well away from the line of control, are also controlled from Islamabad and will be seen as violations of the agreement reached in Washington. The high moral ground on which the struggle in occupied Kashmir stood will therefore have been eroded.
All our past wars with India have been fought for no purpose. We have suffered humiliation as a result and in one of these have lost half the country.
HAIDER
Pakistan's image as a free and democratic society has been tarnished in the eyes of the US lawmakers by its muzzling of free press and the arrest of journalists.
The Indian embassy in Washington has been receiving cheques from Indian expatriates for the defence fund. The response by the Indian community has been unprecedented, the Indians claim. Some estimates of such donations add up to millions of dollars.
The recent resolution in the US House of Representatives, which clearly supports the Indian view, bears testimony to their influence.
When Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif visited New York following his Washington trip and strolled the streets of Manhattan to shop around with his family, the impression that was conveyed was that there
was no urgency at home, that all was well and things would change for the better following the Washington agreement. While the prime minister and his close aides walked around the Sony Center one official came up to the journalists and remarked: "I think Indian community is more patriotic than the Pakistanis.
As for the test of their love for their country, sit in any taxi driven by a Pakistani cab driver. Once he realizes you are Pakistani he will not charge you the fare.
The change that is visible is in the well pronounced, and now
officially announced, tilt towards India, as the two countries are now talking in friendly terms with their common target being the exposed and tattered image of Pakistan as a country which tried to mislead
the US and the world opinion on Kargil.
Prior to Kargil, people would understand and speak about the rights of the Kashmiris, but now not even the closest of friends of Pakistan, like China, are ready to make any commitment. |
