As it prepares for a national election on February 18 that it hopes will usher meaningful civilian rule, what Pakistan sorely needs is a clinical and ruthlessly honest review of the dominant discourse about Kashmir that its elites have so carefully nurtured and determinedly disseminated. Predicated on this anti-India discourse, the military has been able to commandeer the state unto itself and has in the process stunted the growth of an equitable and robust institutional eco-system wherein the legislature, executive and judiciary complement each other. Clearly one section of the Pakistani media has shown the courage to pick up the gauntlet on Kashmir. The challenge is for General Kayani to initiate the catharsis.

The writer is a defence analyst cudayb@gmail.com