LAHORE, Aug 12: National Kashmir Committee chairman Sardar Abdul Qayyum Khan has said that elections in occupied Kashmir could not be a substitute for plebiscite.

He was speaking at a luncheon hosted by Muslim League senior vice-president Khurshid Kasuri at his residence here on Monday.

The Sardar asked how such elections could be fair when about 800,000 Indian troops were deployed in the occupied valley and no foreign observer was allowed to monitor the elections.

He urged India to hold dialogue with Pakistan to resolve the Kashmir issue in accordance with the UN resolutions. Kashmiris living on both sides of the LoC too wished to seek a peaceful and permanent solution to their problem.

The luncheon was attended by former chief justice Nasim Hasan Shah, S. M. Zafar, Liaquat Baloch, Pir Ijaz Hashmi, Mian Munir Ahmad, Tariq Aziz, Umar Kasuri and Begum Mahnaz Rafi. —Reporter