NEW DELHI, Nov 16: The head of held Kashmir’s All Parties Hurriyat Conference broke new ground here on Wednesday by proposing a ‘United States of Kashmir’ as he shared for the first time a platform with pro-Indian rivals from his homeland. That Mirwaiz Umar Farooq was invited to speak at the Hindustan Times Leadership Summit that was addressed by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and foreign leaders, including Israel’s Ehud Barak, is believed to have become possible only after New Delhi’s approval.
Applauding the Mirwaiz’s speech were Pakistan’s High Commissioner Aziz Ahmed Khan and leaders of two major pro-India political parties, who shared the dais with him for the first time ever. They were former minister Omar Abdullah of the National Conference and People’s Democratic Party’s Mehbuba Mufti.
“The conflict over the disputed territory of Kashmir is soluble only if pragmatic, realistic and tangible strategy is established to help set a stage to put the Kashmir issue on the road to a just and durable settlement,” the Mirwaiz told the audience.
He said rather than looking for instant solutions to the dispute, it was time to seriously promote the involvement of all parties in an open discussion on it.
“We deprecate raising of quasi-legal or pseudo-legal questions during the preparatory phase about the final settlement. It only serves to befog the issue and to convey the wrong impression that the dispute is too complex to be resolved and that India, Pakistan and the Kashmiris hold equally inflexible positions,” he said.
