Silence, men at work on peace track

Vajpayee smiled broadly for the television cameras on hand as did Musharraf, as they shook hands with each other. The easy body language was an indication of the very productive and disarmingly frank hour-long conversation that lay ahead.

Perhaps the most significant proposal made at the meeting was the institution of ‘‘special envoys’’ to cut through the decades of hostility that seemed to defeat every attempt at peace.

Musharraf, who is said to have established a ‘‘very good relationship’’ with Principal Secretary Brajesh Mishra—the TV cameras today captured him pulling Mishra out of the back and bringing him in front, where he proceeded to shake hands with him—proposed that the ‘‘China model’’ be adopted on the India-Pakistan front as well.

Highly placed sources here said that Musharraf offered his principal confidante Tariq Aziz as his own ‘‘special envoy.’’ Aziz and Mishra are believed to already know each other well, the sources said, having already been in contact over the last few months.

Another indication of Mishra’s access within the Pakistani establishment has been his meeting with the director-general of the ISI, Ehsan-ul Haq. The two are believed to have met yesterday, while Mishra is said to have met Musharraf a few days ago.

The fact that Mishra and Haq met—neither External Affairs minister Sinha nor the Pakistani spokesman Masood Khan denied the event—is highly significant, considering it is the ISI that controls the covert terrorist infiltrations into the Kashmir valley.Vajpayee is said to have spoken about the need for Pakistan to completely and permanently end cross-border infiltration. While he commended the Pak president for taking forward a number of confidence-building measures on the ground, as well as the unilateral ceasefire across the LoC, the international boundary and the actual ground position line at Siachen—which had held—he pointed to the attacks by the two suicide bombers in Jammu a couple of days ago.

One of the two bombers, the PM is believed to have said, was a Pakistani national. The Islamabad establishment must demonstrably end terrorism, which was beginning to also hurt Pakistan. Sources said that the Indian side wanted the Pakistani side to make a statement in this regard, especially if such a statement could come while the PM was still in Pakistan.

For his part, Musharraf wanted Vajpayee to announce the resumption of a composite dialogue as well as a time-table for the dialogue in a joint communique by tomorrow, before the PM leaves Islamabad.

While the official dialogue, whether at the level of Foreign Secretaries or otherwise, was carried out, the institution of the two special envoys who carried the confidence of their respective leaderships, would be able to come up with creative new solutions that have eluded the best bureaucratic minds in the last five decades.

But the sources also pointed out that with India going into elections ‘‘very soon,’’ it might be difficult for New Delhi to begin an early implementation of its part of the deal. Certainly, a caretaker government would not be able to embark upon a series of creative measures, the sources felt. ‘‘We are very happy with the way things are going, anything else is a bonus,’’ sources said.

They pointed out that with Pakistan making a commitment to end infiltration even after the snows melted in March and the passes opened, New Delhi might be willing to look at other major initiatives. These could include the reduction of troops strength in Kashmir and replacing them with paramilitary forces.

It was not clear tonight whether such a joint communique was about to be signed tomorrow, even though Pakistan Information minister Sheikh Rashid had signalled that there might be one. Vajpayee will attend the concluding ceremony of the SAARC summit here tomorrow and return home in the afternoon.