July 20, 2002	Saturday	Jamadi-ul-Awwal 9, 1423

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WASHINGTON, July 19: Pakistan has received an encouraging support — both from the US government and some Congressmen — at a difficult congressional hearing during which US lawmakers grilled their own policy makers for their wrong policies in Afghanistan.

As US Secretary of State Colin Powell prepares to visit South Asia next week, the House International Relations Committee summoned his assistant for South Asian affairs Thursday evening to explain the Bush administration’s policies for this volatile region.

Addressing the Subcommittee on the Middle East and South Asia, Assistant Secretary of State Christina Rocca touched upon a number of sensitive issues concerning the region, from Afghanistan to Sri Lanka.

But most of the discussion focused on India-Pakistan relations, the move towards democracy — or the lack of it — in Pakistan and the US role in securing the election of Afghan President Hamid Karzai through the loya jirga process.

Several Congressmen took India to task for refusing to recognize the right to self-determination of the Kashmiri people. Others made fun of President Pervez Musharraf’s referendum while also praising his support to the US-led war on terrorism.

Some questioned the sincerity of the military government in holding fair and free elections in October this year.

India also faced sharp criticism for the recent anti-Muslim riots in Gujarat but the representatives were divided on the issue of cross-border infiltrations into Indian-held Kashmir. While Rocca, and some Congressmen, appeared willing to accept Pakistan’s pledge to permanently stop infiltrations, others said these had continued despite this assurance.

The Bush administration faced severe criticism for preventing former Afghan King Zahir Shah from running for the top position during the loya jirga and for failing to make sure that Afghanistan’s majority Pakhtoon ethnic group gets its proper share in the new government.

At least one Congressman also blamed the United States for supporting the Taliban movement when it was formed in the mid 1990s and for indirectly financing the Taliban regime.

Another senior Congressman linked the unrest in the Muslim countries to the US policies in the Middle East and said the United States would continue to face hostilities in the Islamic world until the Palestinian issue was settled.

Pakistan’s military intelligence service, ISI, was also mentioned more than once in the debate and one Congressman even quoted a senior ISI official, Mohammed Muslim, as saying that the United States had arranged the Sept 11 terrorist attacks on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon to defame Islam and the Muslims.

The subcommittee chairman, Rep. Benjamin Gilman made Rocca promise that she will raise this matter with President Musharraf and inform him of his reply.

Rep. Dana Rohrabacher (R-CA) criticized the US government for not urging India to hold a plebiscite in Kashmir. “We have not had the courage to step forward to India and tell the Indians they have to permit the people of Kashmir to have a plebiscite to control their own destiny,” he said, adding there could be no peace in South Asia until that plebiscite was held.

While elucidating the Bush administration’s policy towards Pakistan, Rocca gently nudged President Musharraf to hand over power to a civilian administration after the October elections.

“We view the restoration of democracy and civilian rule within a constitutional framework as crucial to fostering long-term stability in Pakistan,” she told the lawmakers.

Rocca said that a surge in violence in Kashmir could spark a military confrontation with long-lasting and devastating consequences for the entire region. She said “the enemies of moderation in the region” were aware of this fact and were “trying to exploit it through high-profile terrorist attacks, such as that we saw this weekend outside Jammu.”