Quotes of the Day

Pakistani editors invited to break the Ramadan fast last week with President Pervez Musharraf were treated to palm dates, curried pastries and some unexpected news—a radical new approach to Pakistan's bitter, 57-year-old dispute with India over Kashmir.

Until now, Musharraf explained, neither side would budge. Pakistan has long insisted on a plebiscite among Kashmiris to determine whether the people of the troubled Himalayan region should be part of India or Pakistan. For just as long, India has refused to hold such a referendum. New Delhi is happy to keep Kashmir as it is, carved along the Line of Control, which is defended on either side by large armies. This, according to Musharraf, is equally unpalatable for Pakistan. With both countries not yielding, Musharraf said, the stalemate could drag on "for another 100 years."

What Musharraf said next had editors dropping their forks and reaching for notepads. First, he proposed that Kashmir be divided up into seven regions based on geography and ethnicity—and not necessarily on religion. (Muslims are in a majority in most parts of Kashmir.) Next, he said, both India and Pakistan would withdraw troops from these mini-regions, one by one. It would then be left up to the Kashmiris, along with New Delhi and Islamabad, to haggle over whether they wanted India and Pakistan to jointly administer the territories or place them under United Nations' control.

In New Delhi, a Foreign Ministry spokesman chided Musharraf for disclosing his proposal in public rather than going through diplomatic channels. Privately, word began to leak out through senior officials that India would never consider substantially re-drawing its boundaries, as Musharraf suggested. Former Indian Foreign Minister Jaswant Singh said: "Mapmaking has to stop in South Asia. Such attempts would not be acceptable [even] in disguise." Still, it's a start, and Musharraf's formula was the first time a Pakistani leader has abandoned the key demand of a referendum for Kashmiris. If nothing else, his proposal should give momentum to talks later this month in New Delhi between India's and Pakistan's Prime Ministers. Musharraf's "food for thought," as the President described his remarks at the Iftar banquet, may have whetted the appetite for a fresh approach toward Kashmir.

• Tim McGirk | Islamabad
• Pakistan's President takes a new approach to the age-old Kashmir dispute