General in NY, gingerly

Still, by many accounts emanating both from Pakistan and its chief patron, the US, the once-intimate relationship between Musharraf and the Bush administration8212;re-established in the shadow of the September 11 attacks and Washington8217;s decision to hunt down the Taliban and Al Qaeda8212;has in recent times become a trifle stiff, even prickly. With 8216;8216;the enemy8217;8217; having moved out of Afghanistan and into the frontier provinces of Pakistan as well as the more settled Punjab8212;Osama bin Laden, if not dead, is said to be hiding in the mountainous Afghanistan-Pakistan overlap which disdains lines on the map8212;the first questions about Islamabad8217;s real assistance in the anti-terror war are beginning to be raised in many capitals of the world.

As Bush meets Musharraf this week, hardly a month before the Americans mark a year of their war in Afghanistan, both sides are likely to do an assessment of where the anti-terror war stands today. Washington is aware that Musharraf, having turned Pakistan8217;s 8216;8216;strategic depth8217;8217; policy on Afghanistan on its head, is under strain from within his own establishment. Former ISI chief Hamid Gul and an open critic of Musharraf8217;s derring-do was recently sighted in Afghanistan8217;s eastern Pakhtia province where Mullah Omar is rumoured to be.

Afghanistan8217;s other well-known mujahid, Gulbuddin Hekmatyar, who abandoned his Iranian perch some months ago, is also said to be in Pakhtia. An American missile narrowly missed him some days ago. With the US estimated to have spent a whopping 40 billion on the Afghan front so far, very few big catches to show for it and US Senate elections around the corner in November, there seems to be some nervousness in Washington about a possible regrouping of the big, bad boys to destabilise the Karzai government in Kabul. Which, in turn, begs the question: Who8217;s really in control in Islamabad?

Over the last few months, Pakistanis have themselves attempted some answers. Last week, the Pakistani daily The News front paged an article on Pakistan8217;s Kashmir policy, quoting sources as saying Musharraf was ready to make a 8216;8216;crucial shift from the present Pakistani stance.8217;8217; The formula revolved around the conversion of the Line of Control into the International Boundary, besides which India would give up its claim to Pakistani-Occupied Kashmir and the Northern Areas. Moreover, Islamabad would make it clear to Kashmiri groups that elections in Kashmir were an internal Indian problem.

Even as Islamabad took the longest time to deny the story8212;a whole 48 hours8212; an Indian diplomat here pointed out that it was 8216;8216;too intriguing to be true.8217;8217; All around people agreed on at least one thing: Even if Musharraf was speaking the language of India8217;s dreams, high strategy was usually not revealed on the front pages of newspapers. Surely, someone with big ambitions in Pakistan was trying to scuttle the President8217;s date with history.

On the other hand, if the General continued to believe what he had told Indian journalists over breakfast in Agra last year8212;8216;8216;If I believed that the solution to Kashmir was to convert the LoC into the boundary, then I would have stayed on at Neharvali gali!8217;8217; he had said, referring to his pre-Partition home in old Delhi8212;had author Ikram Hoti become the victim of the biggest non-story of the year?

Whatever the truth, on the eve of the Musharraf visit to the US, the story certainly got its 15 minutes of fame. It also brought to mind another article written by the Karachi-based reporter Kamran Khan, which was published in the News on May 29, two days after Musharraf8217;s address to the nation and at the height of the India-Pakistan tension. While Musharraf in his speech had reiterated his intention not to allow Pakistani territory to be used by terrorists to exfiltrate into India, Khan8217;s piece went completely against the official grain.

8216;8216;The Pakistan military leadership under President General Musharraf,8217;8217; Khan wrote, 8216;8216;is absolutely confident that freedom struggle in Kashmir has entered a crucial phase8230;8217;8217; He went on to add, quoting military sources, that operational plans on Kashmir made under Musharraf when he was Pakistan8217;s Director-General Military Operations in the early 1990s 8216;8216;still form the core of the current strategy of the Pakistan Army in Kashmir.8217;8217; Naturally, the article was denied the next day. Naturally again, Khan responded by standing by his information.

Still, as the world8217;s leaders gather in New York, Musharraf8212;being Musharraf8212;could still stop the clock and grab the attention of the assembly. He might be in for a little surprise, though. Exhausted by the time, attention and money spent on this part of the world, the world may insist that he stand up and be properly counted in the fight against terror. In a comprehensive fight, that takes place on both his borders, with India and with Afghanistan.