ISLAMABAD, 6 June 2005 — Leaders of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference met Prime Minister Shaukat Aziz yesterday during their historic visit to Pakistan as part of efforts to resolve the 57-year-old Kashmir dispute.
Talks between the nine-member delegation, including several key moderate leaders from the Hurriyat Conference, and Aziz were held at the prime minister’s office, officials said.
Hurriyat members discussed the situation in Kashmir and steps taken by Pakistan and India to improve bilateral ties, officials said.
They backed the ongoing peace process and reiterated their desire that Kashmiri leadership be involved in the dialogue.
The Kashmiri leaders also met the president of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League, Chaudhry Shujaat Hussain, who expressed hope that the row over the Himalayan region would be resolved during President Pervez Musharraf’s current term in office, which ends in 2007, state television said.
The Hurriyat is an umbrella group of about two dozen parties waging a campaign against Indian rule in Kashmir. It is split between moderates who seek independence for Kashmir and hard-liners who want a merger with Pakistan.
The delegation received a hero’s welcome when they arrived in Muzaffarabad, capital of Pakistan’s section of Kashmir, on Thursday on the first such trip since they launched their in 1989.
Minister for Kashmir Affairs Faisal Saleh Hayat described their visit as a “milestone” toward the resolution of the dispute over Kashmir, which has sparked two of the three wars between the nuclear-armed neighbors since their independence from Britain in 1947.
India also accuses Pakistan of stoking the deadly insurrection, a charge which Pakistan denies, saying it only supports a freedom struggle for Kashmiris seeking independence.
Hayat, who met the delegation late Saturday, said the visit would boost the peace dialogue under way between Pakistan and India in January 2004.
“It is a positive step for the resolution of long-standing Kashmir dispute and this historic visit will give a new momentum (to the peace process),” he said.
Hurriyat chief Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said the alliance supported efforts by Pakistan’s leadership, who invited the separatists to visit, to settle the Kashmir dispute.
“From the battlefield, the Kashmir issue has come to the dialogue table,” he said after talks with Hayat. He said Kashmiris had to be included in the dialogue to end hostilities between India and Pakistan.
“We have proposed triangular talks between India, Pakistan and Kashmiris,” Farooq said on his arrival on Thursday.
“We know that bilateralism miserably failed in the past because Kashmiris were not involved in India and Pakistan talks,” he said. The Kashmiri leaders are expected to meet President Musharraf today. Before leaving for a trip to the United Arab Emirates on Saturday, Musharraf said the visit of the Kashmiri leaders was “a great leap forward in understanding flexibility being shown by the both sides”.
India approved the unprecedented trip after Pakistan invited the leaders last week. However, hard-liners declined the invitation, saying that Pakistan was offering too many concessions to India over Kashmir without getting anything in return from New Delhi.
The visit by the Kashmiri leaders has raised hope of a breakthrough but expecting too much very soon would be premature.
Their visit, in fact, shows the readiness of Indian and Pakistani leaders to involve the Kashmiris in the peace process.
