Indo-Pak press censure UN speeches

India and Pakistan fight it out at the General Assembly

The recent war of words between India and Pakistan has not been limited to the United Nations General Assembly. The subcontinent's major newspapers echo the rhetoric of their political leaders.

Papers in India shred the speech made by President Pervez Musharraf of Pakistan while not being too enthusiastic about Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee's address.

The inability of the UN to resolve the enduring confrontation over Kashmir is what vexes the Pakistani press.

What New Delhi hopes to achieve by military confrontation defies comprehension

Dawn - Pakistan

However, rare agreement can be found among commentators on both sides of the Indo-Pak border: they blame the US for what they see as the emasculation of the United Nations.

Predictable skirmishes

India and Pakistan are both rapped by the Madras-based The Hindu for their penchant to remain so locked in rigid positions, the paper says, that third-party mediators are required.

The paper goes on to seek an explanation for President Pervez Musharraf's "stridently... provocative anti-India sentiments".

"That there is an element of desperation in Pakistan's policy-making circles appears evident from the persistent and foolhardy efforts to draw a distinction between 'freedom fighters' who resort to violence and terrorists of another breed," the paper argues.

Benevolent Dictator turned Sustainable Democrat. Taleban Supporter turned Warrior against Terrorism.

The Indian Express

Pakistan's efforts to devalue the forthcoming state elections in Indian Kashmir did not convince the United States or the international community, the paper says.

Taking a contrary position, Pakistan's The Nation castigates the world for failing to distinguish between freedom movements and terrorism.

"By equating legitimate freedom struggles against foreign occupation, like the one in [Indian] Kashmir, with terrorism, the world falls in danger of reinforcing the feelings of deprivation and exploitation, which in turn serve veritable breeding grounds for further violence," it says.

Karachi-based Dawn points the finger at India for using the "war on terrorism" to "de-legitimize" what it calls the Kashmiri people's fight for their right to self-determination.

"What New Delhi hopes to achieve by its policy of military confrontation along the border defies comprehension," the paper says, holding India responsible for the massive build up of troops by both countries along their border this year.

Getting personal

Cutting sarcasm is unleashed upon President Musharraf by The Indian Express.

Friends no more: leaders of India and Pakistan

"So there he was on the podium playing his various parts. Benevolent Dictator turned Sustainable Democrat. Taleban Supporter turned Warrior against Terrorism. Coup Master turned Perfect Pin-up Boy For A Post-9/11 World," the paper comments.

It systematically lists many of the claims he made about India and the Kashmir situation in his UN speech and dismisses each as a half-truth or a distortion.

"The rhetoric on offer was a tissue of lies," it argues, and failed to "impress the general's masters in Washington".

In the same paper, a commentator argues that President Musharraf's outburst against India is an indicator of his frustration.

Pakistan's Afghanistan policy was buried by the aftermath of 11 September, he says.

The greatest villain in rendering the UN ineffective has been the US

The News - Pakistan

US endorsement of elections in Indian Kashmir and the Pakistani president's "sliding moral authority" as a result of the continuing absence of democracy in Pakistan, he argues, explains Musharraf's "performance" at the UN General Assembly.

"What better way to flaunt legitimacy before your own tyrannized population than the image of yourself holding forth in the assembly of the world?" he asks rhetorically.

UN's relevance?

Pointing out that Iraq is not the only country in breach of UN resolutions, Pakistan's The News argues that the Kashmir situation has been "festering because specific UN resolutions endorsing the Indian commitment to a plebiscite have remained unattended".

"The greatest villain in rendering the UN ineffective by using it selectively has obviously been the US," it declares, citing US support for Israel which has not vacated Palestinian land occupied in 1967 despite several UN resolutions.

Under the title "Tyranny of the bully", New Delhi's The Hindustan Times attacks President George Bush for "threatening the UN outright".

"It is Mr Hussain today, it could be anyone else in the future that America happens not to like, making a mockery of the ideas that established the UN," the paper laments.

BBC Monitoring, based in Caversham in southern England, selects and translates information from radio, television, press, news agencies and the Internet from 150 countries in more than 70 languages.