Between the Great Divide by Anam Zakaria

Author:Anam Zakaria
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: null
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers India
Published: 2018-11-06T16:00:00+00:00

In many ways, implementing the formula would have meant that both India and Pakistan were abandoning their claim on all of J&K, and in an ideal situation, Kashmiris would be given more autonomy. At the launch of his book, Neither a Hawk nor a Dove, in 2015, former Pakistani Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri claimed that India had agreed to the Four-Point Formula on Kashmir. However, the political situation in Pakistan changed soon after the formula was proposed. Internal instability marred by the Lal Masjid operation by the Pakistani state against militants in Islamabad, the lawyers’ movement against General Musharraf and the subsequent assassination of former Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto led to firm opposition to the continuation of military rule in Pakistan. By the end of 2007, General Musharraf’s power had diminished and the Four-Point Formula receded to the background, as did his close to a decade-long period of military rule.

Today, there are many who see the formula as the only real solution to the Kashmir dispute. Eminent Indian lawyer and columnist A.G. Noorani commented: ‘There are three tests, and four limits, to any accord on Kashmir: the Red Fort (in India), the Mochi Gate (in Pakistan) and Lal Chowk (in Kashmir) tests—acceptability to the people on all three sides must be fulfilled… all three will have to accept the four grim realities which time has cruelly created: (1) no government of India can concede plebiscite or J&K’s secession and survive; (2) no government of Pakistan can accept the LoC as an international boundary and survive, either; (3) Kashmiris will never acquiesce in the partition of their beloved land; and (4) Kashmiris will not acquiesce in the continued denial of self-rule and human rights. The four points meet the three tests as well as the four limits.’83 Indian lawyer and politician Ram Jethmalani also stated that Musharraf’s ‘proposal is a fantastic solution to the Kashmir problem’.84 Even Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq believes that the formula is a ‘good beginning’ for a lasting solution.85

Yet others claim that the formula was a way to divert attention from the cause of independence and enable the two nuclear powers to absorb Kashmir as part of their territories. Contrary to Mirwaiz Umar Farooq’s point of view, Hurriyat leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani termed the formula as a ‘deception’ and said that it was ‘nothing more than softening of borders, people-to-people contact and easing of travel formalities… it is a diplomatic trick of converting the “ceasefire line” into a permanent border … it is a formula of burial of the wishes, aspirations and sacrifices of Kashmiris’.86

Some of the ‘Azad’ Kashmiris who I would meet later—who wanted separation from Pakistan as much as from India—would also criticize the formula. They would complain that it was another policy advocated by hegemonic powers without allowing the Kashmiris to voice their demands, to exercise their right to self-determination. They want the option of independence from both India and Pakistan; the formula does not account for these aspirations. Pakistan and India

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