Delhi debates an invite to Musharraf

Doubts arose when a bunch of Musharraf’s “political supporters,” in anticipation of the visit,applied for visas at the Indian mission in Islamabad. New Delhi was under the impression that this would be a private visit where he would only attend closed-door meetings of the YPO. The idea that he would be accompanied by political supporters and that his proposed itinerary included a tour of all the four metros raised questions. Officials here are wary that he could use the visit to make controversial statements that could affect the already delicate India-Pakistan balance.

Musharraf hasn’t exactly helped,too. In an interaction at the Council of Foreign Relations earlier this month,he said: “If I am allowed to be very,very frank,India’s role is to create an anti-Pakistan Afghanistan.”

Having decided to contest the next general elections in Pakistan,Musharraf is possibly keen to raise the anti-India pitch. Just on Friday,he said Pakistan had “solid evidence” of Indian involvement in Baluchistan and that even a dossier existed on this. In a recent interview,he disclosed that Pakistan indeed trained militants to fight in Kashmir but justified it as the right policy.

In the light of all this,Indian authorities continue to be nervous. It’s learnt that the matter is under consideration of the Home Ministry which has to agree if the visit has to take place.

Meanwhile,with just few days left,the Musharraf camp is quite eager and is pressing for clearance. To the extent that it has proposed to keep the visit limited to Delhi and drop the other destinations. Also,the YPO is pursuing the matter quite actively.

If it materialises,this will be Musharraf’s first visit after he quit as Pakistan President. While he makes political statements against Nawaz Sharif for agreeing to discuss Kashmir with India,it was during his time that backchannel negotiations reached the closest to some kind of an acceptable settlement.