By Asif Farooqi, IOL Pakistan correspondent

ISLAMABAD, May 29 (IslamOnline) – Pakistani President General Pervez Musharraf’s  address to the nation Tuesday, May 28, was well received in Pakistan, where the feeling was fast growing for the last few days that Pakistani leadership was finding it difficult to cope with growing Indian pressure on the diplomatic and military fronts. 

Since the joint meeting of the National Security Council and Cabinet last week feeling among the general public was rapidly growing that the government might have already caved in to the Indian pressure as it was for the first time that the government in Pakistan had mentioned that the Pakistani Kashmir will not be allowed for activities against Indian.

The meeting had concluded with the assertion that “Pakistani territory or the territory whose defense is the responsibility of Pakistan (a reference to Pakistan-controlled Kashmir).”  

The top decision making body met in Islamabad following a statement by the Indian prime minister that a decisive war with Pakistan was imminent. The same day, In a clear diplomatic setback to Pakistan’s Kashmir policy, U.S. President George Bush urged upon the Pakistani leadership to stop infiltration into Kashmir.

A former foreign secretary, Tanveer Ahmed said that by making his position clearer on the disputed issues and by inviting the international community to act to avoid otherwise the imminent war, President Musharraf provided the international community and India a clear and open opportunity to lower the tensions.  

“The president made it clear to India and the world community that any compromise on Pakistan’s Kashmir policy was out of question,” Lt. Gen. (R) Talat Masood, a strategic analyst and ex-secretary of the defense production ministry, said of the presidential speech.  

In his speech, President Musharraf had ruled out the question of infiltration from Pakistan into Indian Kashmir as alleged by the Indian leadership.  

General Talat said the strong statement for the archrival helped the president to consolidate his position back home where general opinion seemed to be turning against him since the NSC meeting. “The president removed any amount of doubt in the public opinion about his position on Kashmir.”  

“I was depressed and sad for the last few days but the Presidential speech has helped me recover the disappointment flowing out of the government previous and softer stand towards India” opined Ahmed Shakeel a political science student at the prestigious Quaid e Azam University in Islamabad. Shakeel said the Pakistani public would never allow any Pakistani leader to give concessions to India. 

Ikram Sehgal, a political analyst and writer on regional affairs, said Pakistani president addressed four types of audience and he did justice with all of these.

At the domestic level, Sehgal said, “The president told his countrymen that India would not be allowed to overpower Pakistani leadership. He conveyed to the Kashmiri people that Pakistan was never going to abandon them. To the Indian government, the president sounded very tough and strong and appealed properly to the conscience of the international community.”