Mehbooba cashes in on Pak windfall

“(Asif Ali) Zardari sahib called me sister. Nawaz Sharif took pains to ensure I was comfortable. And Sardar Qayoom Sahib appreciated my concerns,” she told reporters. “I don’t have words to express how warmly I was received in Pakistan.”

The PDP chief also spoke admiringly of the new Pakistan Government, Sharif and Zardari, while at the same time giving credit to President Pervez Musharraf for his “pioneering bold measures” on the resolution of Kashmir.

In the process, she effortlessly straddled Kashmir’s mainstream and separatist political divide, deploying soft separatist arguments while arguing for self-rule and talking in good measure about the specifics of cross-border institutions and an overarching regional J-K council in an echo of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s proposal of a joint consultative mechanism between the two Kashmirs.

Her real objective was also served: to get across the message that she now combined within herself the elusive qualities of an ideal Kashmiri leader successfully spanning the yawning chasm between the Valley’s mainstream and secessionist leader.

Mehbooba urged New Delhi to act urgently on a Kashmir solution along the unfolding new terms of reference of the dispute.

“If there can be a joint mechanism to fight terror between India and Pakistan, then why cannot there be one on Kashmir?” she said while addressing the media. “I don’t know why people evade when such a proposal comes up with respect to Kashmir, why this unnecessarily becomes an issue.”