ISLAMABAD, Aug 1: Pakistan’s Kashmir Committee, constituted by President Gen Pervez Musharraf earlier this year, will soon have its equivalent body in India.

A report by the Times News Network on Sunday said a senior advocate, Ram Jethmalani, “is spearheading the setting up of an India-based Kashmir Committee (KC) which will negotiate directly with its Pakistani counterpart.” It said a formal announcement was expected this week.

According to the report, Jethmalani will be the convener of the Indian KC. Its members are likely to include prominent citizens like M.J. Akbar, Shabana Azmi, Saeed Naqvi, Rajinder Sacchar and Shabir Shah, chairman of the Democratic Freedom Party.

“We need to start a people-to-people dialogue with Kashmiris in (Azad Kashmir). The time has come to give up old cliches and bring people face-to-face,” Jethmalani is quoted as saying. He reportedly discarded the notion that it was part of Track-Two diplomacy, emphasising: “Our aim is to create a pressure group which will force the government to act.”

The report said the proposed KC would interact closely with Kashmiri leaders, including those of the APHC, with whom Jethmalani had held several closed-door meetings in the past couple months.

Reportedly, he told the Hurriyat leadership that “they needed to shed their old baggage of insisting upon self-determination and agree on a forward-looking agenda.”

Jethmalani is said to have supported the demand of Kashmiri leaders that elections in the Valley be held in the presence of international observers. “The presence of observers will only ensure greater transparency,” he is quoted as saying.