Kargil war pricked Pak military’s ‘triumph’ bubble, says weekly

Kargil war had its effect on the Pakistani military rulers as their propaganda and self-induced triumph bubble vis-a-vis the ‘‘cause of Kashmir’’ was pricked, reports Pakistani weekly The Friday Times.

‘‘The world is in favour of status quo on the line of control and even China has abandoned Pakistan on this front,” it says in an editorial written by noted journalist Najam Sethi. If Kashmir was an unalterable internal ‘‘solution” for the cause of military paramountcy in Pakistan until Kargil, it would henceforth have to be seen as an external ‘‘problem” to which a compromise resolution could be found, it adds.

Another lesson of Kargil was that military establishment had come full circle by going back to the Simla Pact of 1972 in trying to resolve Kashmir by means of bilateral dialogue with India rather than by means of militancy or multilateral diplomacy and third party mediation, the weekly says.