LAHORE, Oct 26: Opposition leaders of politico-religious parties have criticized Gen Pervez Musharraf for backing out of the established stance of the country on Kashmir.

Gen Musharraf had on Monday suggested that as making the Line of Control an international border was not acceptable to Pakistan and plebiscite unacceptable to India, both the countries should look for other options to settle the over five-decade old dispute.

The Jamaatud Daawa, a staunch supporter of Jihad in Kashmir, says that the proposal is not acceptable to the people of Kashmir as well as of Pakistan.

Daawa Amir Prof Muhammad Saeed said the plebiscite right for Kashmiris had been supported by the UN and other international bodies and dragging feet from it by Islamabad would be tantamount to preparing for accepting Indian demands.

He said over 100,000 Kashmiris had sacrificed their lives to win freedom from the Indian yoke and not to seek any political or other solutions to the issue.

MMA: Six-party religious alliance deputy secretary-general Liaquat Baloch alleges that Gen Musharraf is accomplishing the US agenda through division of Kashmir as the suggestion is against national interests.

He said the army ruler had no policy of his own rather he was implementing "imported" policies.

He warned that Kashmiris would never accept division of their homeland and any imposed solution without taking leaders of Kashmiris into confidence would not last long.

He regretted that the ruling coalition was raising no voice against Gen Musharraf who was taking important decisions on his own outside the parliament.

Provincial chief Hafiz Idrees said no Pakistani ruler had ever taken such a U-turn like Gen Musharraf on crucial matters concerning national interests.

PML-N: MNA Pervaiz Malik and Muhammad Mahdi wondered what was making Pakistani authorities to shift the country's policy on the disputed valley when India was showing no flexibility in its stand on the issue.

"The freedom movement in Kashmir has become a trouble for New Delhi and not Islamabad then why the latter is going out of the way for earlier settling the dispute," they asked.

They said the division of Kashmir on linguistic and geographical basis was not feasible and, if implemented, it would become a precedence for further divisions in both the countries.