Islamabad: Former Pakistani Generals, including ex-Army Chief Mirza Aslam Beg, have criticised President Pervez Musharraf's handling of the Kashmir problem and said there could be no long-term friendship with India unless the issue is resolved.

The former generals, who were speaking at a seminar organised in Rawalpindi yesterday by the Pakistan Ex-Servicemen Society to mark Kashmir Solidarity Day, said the government should do more to "back" the Kashmiris.

In recent weeks, the Society has twice called on Musharraf to quit and hand over power to deposed chief justice Iftikhar M Chaudhry ahead of the February 18 general election. Musharraf has angrily dismissed the demand. Beg said yesterday that there could be no long-term friendship with India unless the Kashmir issue is resolved.

Former Inter-Services Intelligence Chief Lt Gen (retired) Hamid Gul said nuclear tests by Pakistan had created a balance of power in the subcontinent but it had tilted in India's favour with the debacle during the 1999 Kargil conflict. Ex-Rawalpindi corps commander Lt Gen (retd) Jamshed Gulzar Kiyani said Pakistan's Kashmir policy had been lost and it did not have any Kashmir policy over the past 8 years.

The remarks by the generals were in marked contrast to Musharraf's message on the occasion of Kashmir Solidarity Day in which he said Pakistan was engaged in a "sincere, sustained and purposeful dialogue with India" on Kashmir.

Lt Gen (retd) Asad Durrani, another former ISI chief, said he did not regard Musharraf as the President because he had lost the title after proclaiming emergency on November 3. Pakistan Ex-Servicemen Society president Lt Gen (retired) Faiz Ali Chishti criticised Musharraf for getting himself elected by what he called a "de facto and rigged" assembly.

Source : PTI