ISLAMABAD, Jan 31: The Foreign Office and a federal minister have scuttled a move for adoption of a resolution in the National Assembly asking US President Barack Obama to appoint an envoy on Kashmir or include the settlement of the dispute in the mandate of the US envoy on Afghanistan and Pakistan.

A top official of the Foreign Office blocked the move by setting aside a joint resolution approved by members from both the sides of the aisle, and came out with another version, excluding the call for sending a US envoy on Kashmir.

The move by Marvi Memon of the PML-Q was supported not only by her party’s leadership, but also by the PPP, PML-N, ANP, JUI-F, PPP-Sherpao and Fata MNAs.

The notice for the proposed resolution read: “This House resolves to ask President Obama to send a US envoy on Kashmir or to include Kashmir’s resolution in the mandate of the US envoy on Afghanistan and Pakistan.”

It was signed, among others, by Maulana Fazlur Rahman of the JUI-F, ANP’s Asfandyar Wali Khan, Chaudhry Nisar Ali Khan (PML-N), Syed Khurshid Shah (PPP), Chaudhry Pervez Elahi (PML-Q) and Aftab Sherpao (PPP-S).

As the Muttahida Qaumi Movement had some reservations, it signed a different version, which read: “This house underscores the importance of the peaceful and just resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute. And in this context expresses the confidence that the new US administration will, as stated by President Obama, give priority attention to this issue. (And enable) The US special representative for the region to play an important role for the resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir issue included in his mandate.”

But once, Ms Memon added, the prime minister took off for Davos, Federal Minister for Parliamentary Affairs Babar Awan proposed consultation with the Foreign Office before moving the resolution in the House. A top bureaucrat of the Foreign Office tried to block the resolution on technical grounds by proposing a watered down version instead.

The diluted version proposed by the Foreign Office said: “This House underscores the importance of peaceful and just resolution of the Jamm and Kashmir dispute. We expect the international community to play its due role in the early resolution of this longstanding dispute. And in this context expresses confidence that the new US administration will, as stated by President Obama, give priority to this issue.”

Ms Memon said she had been informed that no other resolution was acceptable to the government.