M A I N   N E W S

India, Pak under pressure
APHC leaders may have tea with Musharraf
M. L. Kak
Tribune News Service

Jammu, June 30
Decks are being cleared for a brief interaction between the Pakistani President, Gen Pervez Musharraf, and leaders of the All-Party Hurriyat Conference.

Reliable reports said both Delhi and Islamabad were under pressure to allow the Hurriyat leaders to have an audience with General Musharraf. Delhi has, for the time being, ignored the request of the APHC chief Prof Abdul Ghani Bhat, for the party leaders to have an audience with Mr Vajpayee and General Musharraf. The Government of India even expressed its inability to allow the Hurriyat leaders to meet General Musharraf.

After General Musharraf was told in clear terms by several leaders in Pakistan occupied Kashmir, including some Hurriyat leaders in Pakistan, who had three-hour session with the Pakistani President the other day that he should meet Hurriyat leaders in Delhi, Islamabad has decided to politely convey to Delhi General Musharraf’s willingness to interact with the APHC team along with other citizens and political leaders.

According to these reports, despite the fact that a majority of mainstream political organisations in India are opposed to grant any recognition to the APHC by allowing them an audience with the President of Pakistan, several Kashmiri leaders, including Mufti Mohd, Sayeed and Prof Saifuddin Soz, have been pleading the case of the APHC.

Also, senior APHC leader, Syed Ali Shah Geelani, who continues to be the most trusted Kashmiri in the eyes of Islamabad, has prevailed upon the Pakistan High Commissioner in Delhi to invite some of the Hurriyat leaders for a brief session with General Musharraf.

The reports said the Pakistan High Commission is trying to find a via media which would keep the Hurriyat leaders in good humour without annoying Delhi. It has been decided that both Islamabad and Delhi would be informed that the selective Hurriyat leaders would be invited to the tea being hosted by the Pakistan High Commissioner in Delhi on July 14, when General Musharraf arrives in the Indian Capital.

There would be several hundred guests invited to tea by the Pakistan High Commissioner and if the Hurriyat leaders were also invited they could also get a chance to shake hands with the Pakistani President.

The APHC leaders are keen to have even a shake hand exercise with President Musharraf which could help them to regain their ground in Kashmir which they had lost after Delhi and Islamabad sideline them.

The APHC leaders have been regular visitors to the Pakistan High Commission in Delhi and their names are already included in the list of those prominent persons who are invited by the Pak High Commissioner on different occasions. As such there would be no deviation from the old practices if the APHC leaders were invited by the Pak High Commission to the tea being hosted in honour of General Musharraf’s visit to Delhi.

Supporters of the APHC are said to have conveyed to Delhi that there was no need to invite the Hurriyat leaders for a separate audience with Mr Vajpayee or General Musharraf. If they could be a part of the crowd at the Pak High Commission during the tea session it should create hardly any problem except that it could enable the APHC leaders to keep their “shop” in Srinagar open.

J&K’s plea on special status rejected
Tribune News Service

New Delhi, June 30
The Planning Commission has turned down the request of Jammu and Kashmir and Assam to accord them special category status with retrospective effect from 1969.

The subject came up for discussion at the two-day full Commission meeting chaired by the Prime Minister on June 27 and 29. The meeting discussed and approved the Draft Approach Paper to the Tenth Five Year Plan.

Under Central Assistance norms, special category states get 90 per cent as grant and 10 per cent as loan whereas other states get 30 per cent as grant and 70 per cent as loan.

Both Jammu and Kashmir and Assam have been demanding the special status with retrospective effect from 1969 for more than a decade. The demand found favour with Mr Atal Behari Vajpayee.

The Prime Minister it is understood was in favour of placing the issue before the National Development Council after clearance from the Planning Commission.

However, the Finance Minister, Mr Yashwant Sinha was not in favour of the move and convinced both the Prime Minister and the Deputy Chairman of the Commission, Mr K. C. Pant against going ahead with the move.

Mr Pant said the issue of special category states did come up at the meeting. While he did not elaborate on what decision was taken on them, he said the issue of placing Uttaranchal in the list of special category states was considered. Since the matter has already been approved by the Union Cabinet, it is to be placed before the National Development Council for ex-post facto approval of the same.

Sources said the Planning Commission had not taken any decision on the demand of Jammu and Kashmir and Assam as it felt that the subject had been dealt with by the Eleventh Finance Commission.

Jammu and Kashmir reiterated the demand when Mr Pant visited the state as the Centre’s interlocutor on Kashmir. The Chief Minister, Dr Farooq Abdullah, had demanded the special category status with effect from 1990. Assam too had made a similar demand.

In the early nineties, the Centre had appointed a committee of experts which had given marginal relief to the states by recommending that the status be advanced from April 1, 1991 to April 1, 1990.

The Eleventh Finance Commission had gone into the demand of Jammu and Kashmir that its old outstanding debts should be written off and the balance pending loans should be re-scheduled. The Commission chose not to make any recommendations on the issue.

However, on the issue of reimbursement of Central assistance on special category state basis prior to 1991, the Commission advised the Ministry of Home Affairs and the Ministry of Finance to work out appropriate debt relief to the state.