DIVIDING KASHMIR BY RELIGION

Understandably it has taken all sides to the dispute by surprise. Mr. Hay at is certainly the first prominent Kashmir government leader on the Pakistani side of the divide to make such a huge departure from Islamabad’s official position over the dispute.In an interview with the BBC earlier this month, Mr Heat suggested the need to explore various options for resolving the dispute, including giving a special status to the Muslim-dominated Kashmir valley.

But the real bombshell came on Tuesday, when Mr Hay at came up with a concrete proposal, suggesting that Jammy and Kashmir should be partitioned in such a way that the Muslim majority areas should be allowed to join Pakistan and the areas where Hindus or Buddhists were in the majority should go to India.If put into effect, most of the areas that are already in Pakistan’s control would remain with it. Pakistan would also get most parts of the Kashmir Valley, including the summer capital, Srinagar. India would get almost the entire Jammy region as well as Lambada and some of the area adjoining it.

At present India holds about 45% of the disputed region, Pakistan over 33%. The rest is held by China.Pakistan says the wishes of the people of Jammy and Kashmir were ignored at the time of partition in 1947.It argues that they should be given the right to choose between becoming part of India or Pakistan.The Indian Government maintains that the former princely state is a sovereign part of the Indian Union.

Refused to consider:

The proposal put forward by no less a person than the prime minister of Pakistan-administered Kashmir harks back to what seasoned Kashmir-watchers in South Asia and the United States call the Chenab formula — named after the River Chenab which would mark the border between India and Pakistan. At official level, both India and Pakistan have refused to entertain the Chenab formula. A former Pakistani foreign ministry official says the suggestion was proposed in the 1960s by the Pakistan foreign minister at the time, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto. But the idea was rejected by his Indian counterpart, Swaran Singh. The proposal remained in cold storage until 1999, when the famous Lahore meeting between the Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and his Pakistani counterpart, Nawaz Sharif, suddenly revived hopes for peace in the region. he security situation has worsened recently.

‘Bitterly criticised’:

Now the Che nab formula is back in the news. position leaders in the regional capital, Muzaffarabad, have bitterly criticised Mr Hayat for putting the proposal forward. Leaders of the hardline religious party, Jamaat-e-Islami, have declared that nothing short of a plebiscite is acceptable to them. Opposition has also come from leaders of the main Kashmiri political grouping in Indian-administered Kashmir, the All-Party Hurriyat Conference. However, some Kashmiri politicians privately say there is division in its ranks over the issue. Srinagar would become part of Pakistan under the Chenab plan. Interestingly, another veteran Pakistan-based Kashmiri leader, Sardar Abdul Qayyum has endorsed the proposal.