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Sharief still hopeful of Clinton's intervention in Kashmir

Desikan Thirunarayanapuram in Washington

A day after he was nearly snubbed by President Bill Clinton over US mediation on Kashmir, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharief tried to save face by claiming that Clinton is willing to get involved in the resolution of the dispute.

"He is keen to get involved in some way or the other," Sharief told reporters at the National Press Club in Washington on Thursday.

"He wants this problem to be resolved... I do believe that President Clinton will take interest -- more interest -- in the future to see that this matter is resolved," he said.

In what appears to be a desperate attempt to bolster the sagging interest in the dispute on Capitol Hill, Sharief employed shockspeak: "Kashmir is the greatest issue on the UN agenda. The risk of a nuclear conflict is real."

For the nth time he dismissed Indian charges at Pakistan sponsoring terrorism in Kashmir, but insisted he will continue to support the people of Kashmir in "their struggle" in India.

"Pakistan will continue to support politically, diplomatically and morally the people of Kashmir and their struggle," he said.

Sharief said he has tried to have a serious dialogue with India since he took office last year. "As a man of peace, one of my first initiatives as prime minister of Pakistan was to resume dialogue with India," he said.

Despite Sharief's full-throated call for global attention to Kashmir, his visit received scant notice from the US press. While The New York Times ignored the story, the Washington Post buried it on an inside page of the world section with no picture of Sharief but two of Pakistani human rights protesters, giving him the kind of publicity he doesn't want.

The 100-strong crowd of Pakistani Americans, mainly supporters of exiled Muttahida Quami Movement leader Altaf Hussain, charged Sharief's government with human rights abuse by detaining, torturing and killing political opponents, especially in Karachi.

Meanwhile, Sharief's much-vaunted diversionary plans to Islamise Pakistani law and 'Talibanize' crime and punishment were unquestioned by US leaders or the media. But former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, who has mounted a vigorous campaign at home against these moves, has written to world leaders and human rights organisations asking them to oppose these retrogressive measures.

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