NEW DELHI: Chief Information Commissioner (CIC) Wajahat Habibullah, who has been appointed as the Jammu & Kashmir Chief Information Commissioner, will be donning another role — that of quiet diplomacy in the peace process set in motion by Union Home Minister P Chidambaram in the sensitive border State of Jammu & Kashmir. Wajahat Habibullah on Thursday called on separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani and asked him to join the peace process.
Emerging from the meeting with Geelani, Wajahat Habibullah said, “Yes, I did mention to him in passing reference that he should also join.”
Geelani is convalescing from an eye-surgery in the capital. With the Pakistan hardline separatist leader staying away from the peace process, it could make the entire exercise infructuous. It is for this reason that Habibullah met Geelani and asked him to join the peace process.
Wajahat Habibullah is hopeful that the peace process will succeed this time round, as there is an all-round appreciation of its beneficial impact and above all, the United States, too, is keen on the peace process succeeding. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh, who had held roundtable conferences with all the stakeholders, set up five working groups on the various key aspects and is now all set to initiate a dialogue, in which efforts are on to bring on board the Hurriyat leaders. It is against this backdrop that Wajahat Habibullah’s meeting with Syed Ali Shah Geelani assumes significance.
Jammu & Kashmir Chief Minister Omar Abdullah was keen to take over as the Jammu & Kashmir Chief Information Commissioner, so that he could also play a part in the peace process in the Valley. He has put in his papers as CIC and is waiting to be relieved, so that he could take over his new responsibilities at the earliest in Jammu & Kashmir.
Wajahat Habibullah is particularly known for his immense popularity and the credibility he commands from all sections of the Kashmir Valley, including the militants. A Jammu & Kashmir cadre IAS officer, Wajahat played a pivotal role in the past. During his tenure as Kashmir Divisional Commissioner in 1993, he brought about a bloodless and peaceful resolution to the siege of the shrine of Hazratbal in Srinagar.
The then-Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao handpicked Wajahat Habibullah for a key diplomatic posting in the Indian Embassy in the United States as Minister for Community Services. The posting was given after Wajahat suffered a serious accident and was in need of further treatment in the US, but it was seen as a mere camouflage for him to sell the Indian case in the United States on Kashmir.
