ISLAMABAD (AFP) - A national debate raged in Pakistan after President Pervez Musharraf outlined a range of bold new options for divided Kashmir that include independence, joint control with India and demilitarisation.
Musharraf used a public address to local media on Monday night to present a three-stage formula for ending the 57-year dispute with India over Kashmir that would result in a "change of status" for the Himalayan state.
"Change in status could be independent status, condominium which includes joint control, it can be UN mandate also," he said.
"We`ll have to sit down with legal experts who can give their opinion on what other status are possible, I don`t know."
Pakistan`s long-held position on Kashmir has been that its people should vote in a plebiscite to decide which nation the state should join.
But Musharraf emphasised a plebiscite was not acceptable to India and therefore other options must now be explored.
He said the one thing not acceptable to Pakistan was making the Line of Control that divides Kashmir into Pakistani and Indian zones a permanent border.
"I`m allergic to this and the Indians know that," he said. "A plebiscite is not acceptable to India and making Line of Control a permanent border is not acceptable to Pakistan."
India responded to Musharraf`s comments by urging him to present any Kashmiri proposals through diplomatic channels rather than the press.
"We do not believe that Jammu and Kashmir is a subject on which discussions can be held through the media," foreign ministry spokesman Navtej Sarna said in New Delhi.
"It is one of the subjects in the composite dialogue process. So if there are any proposals, suggestions regarding that, that is the forum that we expect they will be brought to."
Musharraf stressed in his Monday address he wanted to the nation to debate the options and establish a consensus position before Pakistan goes to India with possible solutions.
He said the process would start with determining the religious and ethnic make-up of the seven regions of Kashmir.
Demilitarising all or some of these regions could follow, followed by changing their status -- meaning a permanent break-up of Kashmir on ethnic and religious lines was an option Pakistan was willing to consider.
"So there is some solution, identify regions, demilitarise, change status. The whole debate on options will be based on this," Musharraf said.
The dispute over Kashmir has been the cause of two of the three wars between Muslim Pakistan and mainly Hindu India since their independence from Britain in 1947.
Tensions over Kashmir sent the nuclear-armed nations to the brink of war again in 2002, when about one millions troops from both sides massed along their borders.
Then-Indian prime minister Atal Bahari Vajpayee kickstarted the new peace process in April last year when he offered a symbolic "hand of friendship" to Pakistan in a speech while visiting Kashmir.
Musharraf said on Monday dramatic progress had been made since then, particularly when he met Vajpayee`s successor Manmohan Singh on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly in New York last month.
"I strongly believe there are options and there is a solution," he said. "For the first time we see light at the end of the tunnel."
Musharraf said his proposals were "food for thought" for Pakistan.
"I have never spoken like this before to anyone. I will request you to debate on these lines," he said.
On Tuesday his comments dominated the front pages of newspapers, led television news bulletins and provoked a mixed reaction that ranged from applause and uncertainty to calls for jihad, or holy war.
Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), the powerful Islamist alliance that is one of two major opposition groups in the federal parliament, immediately rejected the proposals.
"It`s a U-turn, a rollback to Pakistan`s policy on Kashmir since its independence," MMA vice president Hafiz Hussain Ahmed told AFP.
The Prime Minister of Pakistani-controlled Kashmir, Sardar Sikandar Hayat, said he was disappointed.
"We believe in a plebiscite, the one which was promised to us by both Pakistan and India," he said referring to a 1948 UN Security Council resolution calling for a referendum that was agreed to by both countries.
"Now after five decades they are talking about disintegration of Kashmir into six, seven parts."

10/26/2004 - 17:45 GMT - AFP