My enemy146;s enemy is my 8230;?

I have seen the regimes of General Ayub Khan and General Zia-ul Haq. Never had there been so much resentment against the military. General Pervez Musharraf is not a hated figure, at least not in Punjab. But the military he represents is. After living for more than four decades under martial law, people have got inured to its rigours. Yet they constantly experience the loss of liberty. Some in the Pakistan establishment, even though hostile to India, are unequivocally against military rule.

What surprises me is that the people who took to the streets after the rigging of elections during Zulfikar Ali Bhutto8217;s time, did not do so this time. They have suffered everything possible during Musharraf8217;s three year rule. Still there is no stir.

The demonstrations have been only against America which, whatever its unpopularity, is all powerful. The FBI has set up its offices at 45 places, including small towns. It has reportedly installed cameras at all airports in Pakistan to check on arrivals and departures of passengers.

Islamabad does not give you the impression that it can resist Washington8217;s pressure. It all depends on whether America is willing to exert that pressure and to what extent. Take the case of the Al-Qaeda. Islamabad dances to America8217;s tune. Pakistan has handed over some of them to the US.

Former foreign minister Abdus Sattar defends the policy. He said, Pakistan had decided to be on the side of America even before President Bush had asked it for support. The attack on the World Trade Centre was on the 11th September which was virtually the 12th in Pakistan. We reversed our stand on Afghanistan in less than eight hours and adopted the one which was in our interest.

That may be so. Still the Al-Qaeda is said to be everywhere in Pakistan. Many told me in Lahore that the Al-Qaeda activists were so mixed with the local population that it was difficult to detect who was who. I did not find any popular resentment against the Al-Qaeda and the Taliban. All the anger is directed towards the US for what it has done to Afghanistan, which is strategically important for Pakistan. This is so much out of hatred as of fear. The Pakistanis have come to believe that America is out to destroy the Islamic countries. Their impression is that Pakistan8217;s turn will come after America has dealt with Iraq.

This sentiment made religious parties win in elections in the areas bordering Afghanistan. There is, however, something in the allegation that General Musharraf has allowed religious elements to come up so as to frighten Washington. It is not that the public does not understand all this. But the money and the recognition that America has given Pakistan kept the cauldron of resentment from boiling over. India is no longer the number one enemy.

In fact, many people desire to have normal relations with India. We should have been together in our opposition to America, a lot of people from among the intelligentsia told me. Instead, they are using one against the other as the British did during their rule.

At the government level, the discourse has not changed even after the return of democracy. Prime Minister Zafrulla Jamali told me that India had not yet reconciled itself to the existence of Pakistan. When reminded that prime minister Atal Behari Vajpayee had tried his best to remove the impression during his visit to Lahore, Jamali said: 8216;Whatever you may say your intentions are not honest.8217;

Foreign Minister Khurshid Kasuri, no doubt, wants friendly relations with India. But he does not have many supporters in the government. General Musharraf, who ultimately counts, has the reputation of being anti-India. So is the military which is the final authority. I got the impression that the Pakistan government believed it would be increasingly unproductive for India not to come to the dialogue table.

The example given was that of the 90,000 prisoners who were released long after the Bangladesh war because it had become unproductive for New Delhi to retain them.

During his conversation, Jamali brought up Kashmir, saying that it should have been part of Pakistan. Except in official circles, there was hardly any mention of Kashmir. There is an element of fatigue. Both the government and the people have realized that it was not possible to wrest Kashmir from the hands of India.

For the first time I heard some voices favouring a settlement on the Line of Control Loc. One member of the National Assembly went to the extent of suggesting that Kashmir would become secondary if New Delhi were to allow Pakistani goods to sell in Indian markets. The loss to India was estimated at Rs. 500 crore.

People increasingly talk about economic cooperation. Jamali mentioned about the gas pipeline connecting Iran with India through Pakistan. I told him that unless relations between India and Pakistan were normal, the project would not go through.

Perhaps Islamabad would do well to allay first India8217;s misgivings on cross-border terrorism. Training camps are still there although they were removed from the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir when Islamabad feared India8217;s limited attack there. At that time, the nuclear weapons were also dispersed, some of them to Gilgit.