M A I N   N E W S

No insistence on meeting before summit: APHC

Chairman of the Hurriyat Conference, Prof. Abdul Gani Bhat (R), talking to JKLF leader Bashir Ahmad Bhat during an executive meeting of the Hurriyat at party headquarters at Rajbagh, Srinagar, on Monday. — PTI photo

Srinagar, June 25
The All-Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) today said it wanted to talk to both Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee and Pakistani President Gen Pervez Musharraf for a permanent solution to the Kashmir problem and would not insist on an appointment ahead of the July summit meeting between the two leaders.

“We have sent letters to heads of both governments seeking an appointment as we know that we have a definite role in the Indo-Pak talks on Kashmir because we are the main party in the issue,” APHC Chairman Abdul Ghani Bhat told UNI at the end of the conglomerate’s executive committee meeting here.

“We still await replies from Mr Vajpayee and General Musharraf to our letters,” Professor Bhat said.

“We would not talk to Mr Vajpayee alone as the meeting with General Musharraf is equally important to help find a lasting and permanent solution to the vexed Kashmir issue.”

“We will not insist on an appointment ahead of the summit and we are ready to discuss the matter before or after the summit between the two leaders,” he said.

Asked if the Hurriyat failed to receive any reply or its request was turned down by India, Professor Bhat said, “Let us wait.”

In reply to another question, he said, “We can wait one more week for the reply.”

He said the Hurriyat would decide its future strategy if there was no positive response to its letters.

“As I returned from Delhi after staying there for a couple of days, it was my duty to brief other executive committee members about the developments in Delhi,” he said.

Professor Bhat said he also apprised the members about his meeting with Pakistani High Commissioner Ashraf Jehangir Qazi which he had during his stay in Delhi.

Today’s meeting was called to discuss the overall situation in the state in general and the Indo-Pak summit in particular.

Before going to the meeting hall at the party headquarters at Raj Bagh, Professor Bhat had told reporters the day-to-day functioning of the alliance would also come up for discussion.

The meeting was attended by Maulana Abass Ansari, Mr Abdul Ghani Lone, Sheikh Abdul Aziz and Syed Ali Shah Geelani, APHC spokesman Sheikh Abdul Rashid said.

Former Chairman Maulvi Omar Farooq, who left for Mali yesterday to attend the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) meeting, was represented by Mr Ghulam Nabi Zaki, while Professor Bhat was the nominee for Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front chief Mohammad Yaseen Malik, now in London.

Open Srinagar-Rawalpindi road: Mufti
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 25
Jammu and Kashmir Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) President Mufti Mohammad Sayeed today demanded the opening of the Srinagar-Rawalpindi road, relaxation in the visa regulations and reining in of counter-insurgents in the state as a part of confidence-building measures ahead of the Indo-Pak summit.

The visa regulations between the two countries should be eased immediately so that the divided families from both sides of the border could meet, Mr Sayeed said.

Social scientists to discuss Indo-Pak summit
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 25
To “insulate and isolate inimical vested interests” against harmonious Indo-Pakistan ties, the Indian Council of Social Science Research is organising a two-day meeting of over 200 social scientists from India and Pakistan here a few days before the Vajpayee-Musharraf summit in Agra.

The seminar, a brainchild of ICSSR Chairman Manohar Lal Sondhi, has been blessed by Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee.

Professor Sondhi, former Lok Sabha MP of the Bharatiya Jan Sangh, took the initiative of inviting social scientists from Pakistan. He felt that if the five-decade cycle of hatred and animosity between the two South Asian neighbours had to be broken, an extra effort beyond the realm of officialdom was the need of the hour.

Professor Sondhi, who has taught at the School of International Studies of Jawaharlal Nehru University, told TNS that if the fate of the Indo-Pak relations was left to the bureaucracy, then no improvement was possible as we have seen in the last 50 years.

Effort is needed to create an understanding between the people of the two countries so that real causes of conflict between the two neighbours could be addressed, said Professor Sondhi.

While Pakistan harped on Kashmir, terming it as a “core issue”, ignoring the real problems faced by the people, New Delhi would have to take a non-partisan view of the relations in the context of new international realities, he said, adding that the future of Afghanistan was the real core issue between the two countries.

Meanwhile, Pakistan High Commissioner Ashraf Jehangir Qazi today discussed protocol arrangements with the External Affairs Ministry for the July 14-16 visit of President Pervez Musharraf.

Mr Qazi met Chief of Protocol Manbir Singh to fine-tune the programme of President Musharraf who arrives here on the morning of July 14.

An advance Pakistani team to discuss protocol and security issues with Indian officials is expected here in the first week of July, a spokeswoman of the Ministry of External Affairs said here. The team will also discuss arrangements for the media teams coming from Pakistan to cover the event.