ISLAMABAD, June 4: Leaders of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) on Saturday stressed for a triangular dialogue between Pakistan, India and Kashmiri leadership while seeking to resolve the valley dispute.
The nine-member delegation of a moderate faction of the APHC said the purpose of their visit was to discuss with Pakistani leaders a set of proposals that could lead to an honourable solution of the dispute. They arrived here by helicopter from Muzaffarabad to a warm welcome.
Talking to newsmen at the helipad and later at a news conference, APHC chief Mirwaiz Umar Farooq emphasised that Pakistan and India should include the Kashmiri leadership in the dialogue process, otherwise there might be an agitation at the both sides of Kashmir.
He said Kashmir was a political issue, which gave hope of a political settlement. He termed APHC’s visit to Pakistan the first step to recognize Kashmiris as the fundamental and basic party to the dispute of Jammu and Kashmir. This recognition had been made possible because of the sacrifices rendered by Kashmiris for freedom, he added.
The APHC leader said time had come for a just and fair solution of the Kashmir issue and without Kashmiris, the dialogue process would not make any breakthrough. Mirwaiz described the visit of the APHC delegation to Pakistan as a sacred mission for seeking peace between Pakistan, India and Kashmir.
Supporting General Musharraf’s efforts for the resolution of the Kashmir issue, he asked the president not to undertake any confidence-building measures with India without taking the Hurriyat into confidence.
He said the APHC had come to listen to the proposals of Gen Musharraf on Kashmir and to reaffirm their full support to him. About the differences in the ranks of the APHC, he said “we are taking all steps to remain united”.
He said the delegation during its stay in Islamabad would be meeting with President General Pervez Musharraf, Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz, Foreign Minister Khurshid Mehmood Kasuri and other officials and political leaders of the country to chalk out a joint strategy on Kashmir.
Mr Farooq maintained that their meetings would focus on the proposals floated by Pakistan and India to resolve the Kashmir dispute, claiming that the issue had moved on from the stage of war to that of dialogue. Now it had become inevitable that the Kashmiri leadership should be included in the ongoing composite dialogue process, he added.
He said the ongoing peace process between the two countries had full support of the APHC, but the Kashmiri leaders had to be included in it to make the process successful and credible. It was Pakistan’s responsibility to ensure participation of Kashmiri leaders in the dialogue process, he added.
Asked if there was any pressure from President Musharraf to accept maximum autonomy offered by India to Kashmir, Mr Farooq said there was no such pressure on the APHC and he would never compromise on the issue.
Speaking on the occasion, Yasin Malik, chairman of his own faction of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), said that during his recent meeting with General Musharraf in New Delhi, he had told him that the people of Kashmir felt humiliated when they heard about confidence-building measures and other bilateral measures without addressing the core issue of Kashmir.
Earlier, Faisal Saleh Hayat, Kashmir affair and Northern Areas minister, welcomed the APHC delegation and said their visit would go a long way in resolving the Kashmir dispute.