M A I N   N E W S

Pak ‘willing’ for talks on Kashmir

DUBAI, Nov 17 (UNI) — In a shift from its emphasis on United Nations resolutions to find a solution to the Kashmir issue, Pakistan appears to be willing to look at a negotiated settlement of the dispute, according to All-Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) leader Mirwaiz Mohammed Umar Farooq.

The Mirwaiz gathered this impression after his meeting with Pakistan’s military ruler Gen Pervaiz Musharraf on the sidelines of the just-concluded Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) summit at Doha.

Talking to Gulf News here on his way back to Srinagar after attending the Summit, the Mirwaiz said “there is a shift in Pakistan’s position... Gen Musharraf’s stand is very flexible, it is a change from the position held by Pakistan in the past where they have always insisted on a solution based on the implementation of UN resolutions that call for a plebiscite... They are 50 years old and can never be implemented”.

He said “Gen Musharraf seems agreeable to a negotiated settlement, he wants to have a dialogue with us to reach a solution that is agreeable to us, the people of Kashmir”.

The Mirwaiz, the seniormost Muslim cleric in Kashmir, said “I believe this is not a bilateral issue between India and Pakistan. Neither recognises US as a party to the dispute, and yet Kashmiris are the primary party, and we must find a solution that is acceptable to all three parties”.

The APHC has an observer status at the OIC but it is the first time since the OIC summit in Casablanca that the Indian government allowed Hurriyat leaders to participate in the summit.

The Mirwaiz said his aim now was to unite political and militant forces in an intra Kashmir dialogue’’ that would include not just the Muslims, who formed majority in the state, but also the Sikhs, Dogras, Hindu Pandits, the Buddhist people of Ladakh as well as the Kashmiris in occupied Kashmir and the militant Kashmiri group Hizb-ul-Mujahideen.

“I believe it is Kashmiris who will find the key to peace in the sub-continent and we have to be able to take the initiative, set up the structure and the parameters for these talks”, he said.

The Hurriyat leader said, “I want to be able to offer the militants a political solution that is acceptable to all”.

The Mirwaiz was of the view that there could be “triangular” talks rather than “tripartite” talks with India and Pakistan. “If India and Pakistan are not willing to talk directly, we are willing to hold talks with the two sides separately”.

He said the visit by Hurriyat leader Abdul Ghani Lone to Pakistan to attend the wedding of his son with Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front chief Amanullah Khan’s daughter would be an opportunity for Mr Lone to talk to Kashmiri leaders across the border.