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Pakistan’s promise to Hurriyat team

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani leaders have assured a visiting delegation of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference that the new government here was committed to the Kashmir cause and would seek a “just solution” to the issue in keeping with the aspirations of the people of Kashmir.

The APHC, which is here on an invitation from the Pakistan government, also received an assurance from the ruling Pakistan People’s Party in a joint declaration that it was the “representative body” of Kashmiris.

The APHC team, led by its chairman Mirwaiz Omar Farooq, met Prime Minister Yusuf Raza Gilani and the Pakistan People’s Party leader Asif Ali Zardari on Monday.

The APHC team and Mr. Zardari offered prayers for his slain wife Benazir Bhutto, and at the PPP leader’s instance, also for “Kashmiri martyrs,” a PPP press release said.

The PPP and the APHC signed a “joint declaration” that said both would strengthen their relations, and take steps to promote people to people contacts between the Kashmiri people on both sides of the Line of Control. Recalling that relations between the APHC and the PPP were established

Initially visits of delegations of students, youth, lawyers, businessmen and political leaders and parliamentarians will be arranged to promote greater people-to-people contacts, the joint declaration said.

According to a PPP release, the joint declaration reaffirmed that APHC is the representative body of the Kashmiris and reiterated their support to the people of Kashmir in their struggle.

Prime Minister Yousuf Raza Gilani told the APHC team that Kashmir remained the core issue for his government, which would seek a peaceful solution to the issue in keeping with the aspiration of the people of Kashmir.

“We will continue to extend political, diplomatic and moral support to the cause of Kashmir until a just and honourable settlement of Kashmir is reached as per the wishes of the Kashmiri people,” he told the APHC delegation.

He said Pakistan was convinced that any settlement that did not have the backing of the Kashmiri people would not be durable or sustainable.

“We look at the struggle by the Kashmiris with great admiration and their untold sacrifices for a just solution of the Kashmir dispute will not go in vain,” Mr. Gilani said.

Mr. Farooq, who was accompanied by Abdul Ghani Bhatt, Bilal Ghani Lone, Syed Faiz Naqshbandi, Professor Saraf and Yousuf Naseem, told the Pakistan Prime Minister that Kashmiris were “beholden” to Pakistan for its support to their cause.

He expressed support for the peace process between India and Pakistan, and the confidence building measures that had been taken by the two sides. However, he flagged the continued presence of Indian troops in Kashmir, and said the peace process needed to be accelerated in the interests of a just solution.

Mr. Farooq also said the APHC did not recognise the elections in Kashmir due later this year as a substitute for the Kashmiri demand for the right to self-determination.

The team also met opposition leaders Chaudhary Pervez Elahi and Mushahid Hussain of the Pakistan Muslim League (Q). They were feted at a reception by the Pakistan Occupied Kashmir Prime Minister Sardar Attiq Khan on Sunday.

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