NEW DELHI, Sept 14: President Pervez Musharraf has invited the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) to hold talks with Kashmiri groups in his country, the group’s senior leader Mirwaiz Maulvi Umar Farooq told Dawn from New York on Saturday.

The former APHC chairman also said he had invited Abdelouahed Belkeziz, secretary-general of the Organisation of the Islamic Conference (OIC), to visit Kashmir.

He said the offer had been accepted in principle.

Mirwaiz, who is Kashmir’s spiritual leader, said he had invited Pakistan’s National Kashmir Committee Chairman Sardar Abdul Qayyum for talks either in New York or later this week in London. Qayyum is currently on a tour of the Gulf states, he said.

Gen Musharraf and in a separate meeting, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Inamul Haq, were also briefed about the recently set up Kashmir Committee in India. “They expressed their approval of the effort,” Mirwaiz said.

The officially encouraged Indian committee is headed by Ram Jethmalani, a former law minister, who has argued in favour of Kashmiris’ right to self-determination as an integral right of its people.

“We acknowledge the efforts the United States is making to facilitate a purposeful dialogue between India and Pakistan and in that context, to maintain contact with the Hurriyat Conference. We place the trust in US Secretary of State, Colin Powell that he will not countenance any attempt to ignore the wishes of the people of Kashmir and bypass the expression of those wishes,” Mirwaiz said in a statement.

“The American effort would, however, be far more constructive than it has proved so far if its focus would be on putting the Kashmir dispute on the road to a settlement rather than merely obtaining a reprieve in the situation of tension,” Mirwaiz told the OIC contact group on Kashmir.

In his meeting with the Kashmir contact group of the OIC, Mirwaiz was accompanied by Gen Mohammad Anwar Khan, President of Azad Kashmir, Barrister Sultan Mehmood, former Prime Minister of Azad Kashmir, Dr Ghulam Nabi Fai, Executive Director, Kashmiri American Council and Mr Faiz Naqashbandi, leader of the APHC, Azad Kashmiri Chapter.

“Consistently with our stand, we have shown repeatedly that we are prepared to reciprocate any gesture of genuine goodwill and to cooperate in a credible effort to achieve a just and durable settlement of the dispute concerning our life and future. Along with the Kashmir Committee headed by a respected former law minister of India, we have agreed that the peace process could best be nurtured through a structured dialogue involving all concerned parties,” he told the OIC group comprising foreign ministers of Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Turkey and Niger.

“We have thus demonstrated our earnest resolve, insofar as it lies in our power, to help take the poison out of the Kashmir dispute. But the resolve will be of little avail if the Government of India continues to follow a course that is as moribund as it is fraught with dangerous consequences, not least for India’s own welfare and influence.”

The OIC secretary-general thanked the members of the Kashmiri delegation for updating him about an issue which concerns not only the Ummah but also the whole world owing to its impact on international peace and security —- the disputed question of Kashmir.

Abdelouahed Belkeziz also said it was on the basis of the analysis that the OIC had been exerting sincere efforts to find a peaceful resolution to the Kashmir dispute.

“Following the escalation of tension in May, I have issued a press release in which I deeply deplored the deterioration of the situation between the two countries to such a degree that disastrous consequences could ensue,” he told the meeting.

He said he had expressed total readiness to use his good offices so as to ease tension and help settle the outstanding issue between India and Pakistan.

“Mirwaiz, on behalf of the APHC, extended an invitation, to the secretary-general to visit Kashmir and assess the situation on the ground. The secretary-general gladly accepted the invitation in principle,” the APHC statement said.