LAHORE, Feb 28: "Full-grown" political leadership, especially the course taken by Asif Zardari and Nawaz Sharif during the election process, has deeply impressed Indians.

“We're all praise for the maturity shown by Pakistani politicians, including Gen Musharraf, during the routine election hullabaloo which turned into turmoil after the murder of PPP chairperson Benazir Bhutto," says Dr V.P. Vaidik, the chairman of Council for Indian Foreign Policy, an influential think-tank.

On a private visit to Lahore, he told a select gathering of reporters here on Thursday that Mr Zardari's conduct had particularly been remarkable for despite not holding any high-profile position in the past, he had acted quite sensibly at crucial junctures.

Indians had both appreciation and reservations for Gen Musharraf, he said, adding that they thought the Pakistan president as leader of leaders as he had outsmarted their leaders on many occasions.

Also a senior journalist, Vaidik said circumstances had matured the former army chief too, and lauded him for holding free and fair polls.

Asked what reservations Indians have about President Musharraf, Vaidik counted ouster of an elected government, murder of Baloch leader Akbar Bugti and the action against the judiciary as the incidents making the former army chief ‘unpredictable’ in the eyes of the Indians.

He said the people across the border were also happy that Pakistanis had been able to use their right to franchise after a long era of dictatorship and they saw it as an irreversible trend which would help improve relations between the two South Asian neighbours.“Third option” is the only solution to solve the Kashmir issue, he said while referring to the core issue between Islamabad and New Delhi which, he said, had damaged both the countries. However, the solution might not be acceptable to Pakistanis, he hastened to add.

India might afford liberating the part of Kashmir under its occupation but Pakistan couldn’t grant the valley an independent status, he said.

“Neither we're getting billions in revenue from Srinagar nor has the valley so far delivered on the intellectual front. Pakistan too is losing more than getting anything from Kashmir by mortgaging its sovereignty to the US for receiving military aid from the super power to challenge India,” he said.

“The wars in the past have proved that neither you can snatch the valley from us nor can we do so. Pakistan has tried its luck in the battlefield while India has done it in academic discussions.”

Answering a question, he said New Delhi could not also afford to keep more parts of Kashmir as the one already with it was exhausting its energies.

Dr Vaidik regretted that both the countries had been victimising the Kashmiris. “What have you done so far for your part of Kashmir? Is it better off than the one with us?”

He said during informal interactions with Pakistani political and military leaders he had been stressing that they must lay claim to the Indian part of Kashmir if they had brought prosperity to their part of the valley and the same went for Indians."

Calling for strengthening of regional ties, he suggested inclusion of Iran in the South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation.

A unity among South, Central and South East Asia, he said, could transform the world like in the past. “Since the arrival of Aryans the region has been initiating big movements that changed the world... The last one is raised by Osama bin Laden.”