ISLAMABAD, May 29: Foreign Office Spokesman Jalil Abbas Jilani on Sunday sounded confident that All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) leaders would board the June 2 bus for Muzaffarabad and made it clear that they would travel beyond AJK. Talking to Dawn Mr Jilani said the APHC leaders by virtue of their special status could travel beyond AJK, adding that the understanding between Pakistan and India that the travel permit issued to passengers travelling by the Srinagar-Muszzafarabad bus would be valid for only AJK was not applicable to them.

Our point of view is that the APHC leaders fall in a special category and cannot be equated with ordinary passengers and can travel anywhere in Pakistan once they arrive in Muzaffarabad, the spokesman maintained when asked to comment on his Indian counterpart’s statement that under the agreement between the two governments the Kashmiri leaders cannot go beyond AJK.

During their visit the Hurriyat leaders will not only interact with the Kashmiri leaders in AJK but also with Pakistani leadership to carry forward the peace process, the spokesman said. It was imperative that the APHC leaders be involved in the ongoing dialogue process for a lasting solution to the Kashmir issue, he added.

The APHC leaders have relatives in Islamabad, Rawalpindi and Lahore and would be visiting all these cities, Mr Jilani said. He maintained that most of the APHC leaders had confirmed with Islamabad their visit on June 2.

They include Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Prof Abdul Gani Bhat, Maulana Abbas Ansari, Bilal Gani Lone, Fazal Haq Qureshi, Shabbir Ahmed Shah and Yasin Malik.

GEELANI: The spokesman was optimistic that Syed Ali Shah Geelani would also visit Pakistan on June 2. We are quite hopeful that he will also be coming. However, the Spokesman was non-committal when asked if Mr Geelani would board the bus with other Kashmiri leaders or travel in his private car, as the latter had hinted earlier.—Q.A.