The U.S. rulers have been pushing for such an outcome, pressing both governments to put aside their differences and join with Washington in its “global war on terrorism.” Stabilization of the India-Pakistan border area would allow U.S. Special Forces to operate with greater ease in the region.

“Take Kashmir in its entirety. It has seven regions. Two of the regions are in Pakistan and five are in India.… Identify a region, demilitarize the region—troops out—and change its status,” Musharraf suggested at a dinner in Islamabad attended by diplomats, government officials, and reporters. According to the Times of India, the Pakistani president said Kashmir’s “status can be independence,” or “joint control” by New Delhi and Islamabad, or under United Nations “supervision.”

Musharraf’s announcement comes as the U.S. military has made substantial progress in working with the Pakistani armed forces around the Afghanistan-Pakistan border, especially, in hunting down remnants of the former Taliban regime in Afghanistan—which the Pakistani rulers had earlier backed—and “terrorist” groups such as al-Qaeda. At the same time, Washington has strengthened its military cooperation with the Indian government.

New Delhi’s initial reaction to Musharraf’s proposals was chilly. “We do not believe that Jammu and Kashmir is a subject on which discussions can be held through the media,” India’s foreign ministry spokesman, Navtej Sarna, told reporters. The regime in India has accused Islamabad of fanning a 15-year-old rebellion against New Delhi’s rule in Jammu and Kashmir state, where more than 40,000 people have died in the conflict since 1989.

Talks between the two regimes are expected in late November, when Pakistani prime minister Shaukat Aziz meets with the Indian prime minister, Manmohan Singh, at a regional meeting in New Dehli.

An opposition alliance in Pakistan of parties self-described as Islamic, the Muttahida Majlis-I-Amal, has rejected the president’s proposals. “Musharraf has no right to suggest a solution of the Kashmir dispute,” Qazi Hussein Ahmed, leader of Jamaat-I-Islami, Pakistan’s largest “Islamic” party, said at a news conference October 27. “He is a military ruler and doesn’t command the support of the Pakistani people.”

Kashmir, a province with borders on Afghanistan, Pakistan, India, and China, is mostly Muslim, like Pakistan. There are also large Hindu and Buddhist communities in the region under the control of India, a predominantly Hindu nation. The territory is partitioned with Indian troops occupying two-thirds of the area and soldiers from Pakistan deployed in the rest. The regimes in Pakistan and India, both nuclear powers, fought wars over the territory in 1965 and 1990.

Musharraf, the military chief of staff who seized power in a 1999 coup, has survived several assassination attempts—including two last December—since becoming a key ally of Washington in the region during the U.S.-led invasion of Afghanistan. Subsequently, Musharraf won office in a 2002 referendum. In a move to strengthen his grip, the country’s senate, or upper house of parliament, passed a bill November 1 that would allow the president to keep the post of army chief, Reuters news service reported. The bill, approved October 15 by the National Assembly—the lower house of parliament—now only needs to be signed by Musharraf to become law.

Under a deal made last year with the opposition alliance, Musharraf had promised to step down as head of the military by December 31 in exchange for its support for changes to the constitution that gave him sweeping powers to dismiss both houses of parliament. After dropping hints that he would renege on the deal, Musharraf claimed that resigning as army commander could weaken his authority to aid the U.S. military attacks in Pakistan and his proposals to New Dehli on Kashmir.

Washington, “which has in the past encouraged Musharraf to keep his pledge, now says it is a matter for Pakistanis to decide,” Reuters reported.

This year Islamabad has launched three major military operations along the border with Afghanistan in collaboration with U.S. forces. The latest one in June involved 20,000 Pakistani troops attacking local groups accused of opposing Musharraf’s regime and collaborating with al-Qaeda.

The Pakistani ruling class was pressured by Washington to open the country’s air space and other facilities to aid the U.S. imperialist invasion that overthrew the Taliban-led Afghan government in 2001. Earlier this year, U.S. secretary of state Colin Powell dubbed Pakistan “a major non-NATO ally for purposes of our future military relations.”  
 
 
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