Pervez Musharraf a deft politician in uniform

He may look like a General, he may talk like one. But politics has not passed Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf by.

Marketing military bluntness as a statement of personal style, Musharraf charmed, not just Indians but also Pakistanis, at the recently held South Asian Free Media Association (SAFMA) meeting.

The General spoke in his normal combat-ready style and made sure that each of his 200 odd audience in the room, took a piece of Musharraf folklore back to their own country.

A 12-year girl read out a poem about Pakistan at the meeting. Did Musharraf give her a set of books as a gift? No. Did he present her toys or educational aid? No. Instead, he met her, told her how much he liked her poem and then summoned a n underling, telling him "woh lao".

The underling knew what he was talking about and handed him a fat wad of Rs 10,000 gift vouchers. He peeled one voucher off and handed it to the girl - much to the delight of her mother, standing behind her.

He was asked by Indians about the workability of his proposal for shared sovereignty over Jammu and Kashmir and why he reacted so emotionally when the Prime Minister Mamnmohan Singh asked him to put a formal proposal on the table ("Do not patronise me", he is reported to have said).

"But I thought we had to think out of the box," he said. "When I gave a idea out of the box, you people took no notice of it," he said. It was suggested to him politely that there were two tracks in diplomacy. "But do not both tracks matter?" he said.

"Reiterating old positions on Kashmir is not going to work. We have also realised the futility of war. What else can you expect from me?" he said. "Do you want me to fight?" he asked.

The message he sent was that though he was ready to be flexible on Kashmir it was the Indian government, which was being heavy handed.

When he realised that Kashmiri journalists on their way to Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) were present in Lahore, he invited them over for lunch that very day, questioning them at length about the prospects of peace.

The emergence of the General as the great communicator has its genesis like many things in his life, in India. When he visited Bangladesh some time ago, he expressed a desire to hold a press conference. The Dhaka government scheduled one and then cancelled it.

Musharraf, determined to meet some editors, invited them over for breakfast, with a caveat. "Gentlemen, we can discuss anything you want just do not repeat Agra," he said.

The reference to the breakfast meeting with Indian editors, which was supposed to be an informal meet but was later telecast much to Musharraf's embarrassment, revealed how far he had come in politics.

While his close aides insist that the General in his vardi is very much in control, his struggle to keep it (the uniform) on despite political opposition shows that he is walking a tightrope on the home front.

The release on bail of Benazir Bhutto's husband Asif Zardari after eight years in jail and allowing Nawaz Sharif's father to be buried in Punjab seem to be moves to mark his transformation from the General to a politician.