President Zardari’s statement to stay committed to lending Kashmiris all-out support made in a meeting with Barrister Sultan Mahmood is welcome. He is right in saying that it is necessary to settle the conflict in order to establish peace in South Asia. But for a government that is charged with ‘freezing’ the issue, the pledge is questionable. In all conscience, the PPP setup did not support the Kashmiri struggle in a way observed in the past. The days when Islamabad truly considered Kashmir to be its jugular vein and backed it on every front appears to be over. Diplomatic support has become limited to a few occasional statements but not without its fallout; Pakistani public as well as the Kashmiri leadership and youth are enraged at government’s lack of enthusiasm. To evince so much readiness for cross-border trade, the ruling class is behaving as though agreeing with New Delhi’s view that the Valley did not matter.In view of the constantly deteriorating relations between India and Pakistan now under the pall of a nuclear fear, a settlement ordered by the UN Security Council is most practical and must be quickly worked out. If fairly conducted under the auspices of the UN, the plebiscite can let the people decide their fate. Peace initiatives in the absence of dispute’s resolution as currently being pursued by both the countries are neither sustainable nor genuine.