SHAH ABBAS
Srinagar
Pakistani government has invited all the prominent pro-freedom leaders of Kashmir to visit Islamabad in December.
The Pakistani Deputy High Commissioner in New Delhi, Babar Amin, has sent fresh invitations to the chairmans of both the factions of Hurriyat Conference, Syed Ali Geelani and Mirwaiz Umar Farooq. Sources said the other Hurriyat leaders including Abdul Ghani Butt, Agha Syed Hassan Al-Moosvi, Shabbir Ahmed Shah, Maulana Abbas Ansari, Bilal Ghani Lone and Mukhtar Ahmed Waza have also been invited and asked to confirm dates for the visit in the month of December.
The Pakistan High Commission has also sought details from the leaders regarding the availability of travel documents, sources said. Mirwaiz confirmed he was contacted for the proposed visit to Pakistan. “Details regarding availability of passports with various leaders were also sought. Hopefully we will be visiting the country and a decision on dates can only be arrived at after holding a meeting of the Hurriyat Conference,” he added.
Pertinently, Shabir Ahmad Shah does not possess a passport while other APHC(M) leaders are holding the travel documents. Shah has demanded that he should be allowed to travel through Srinagar-Muzafarabad road on the basis of State Subject Certificate. “I have never ever written on the prescribed forms for seeking passport that I was an Indian citizen,” Shah said.
Hurriyat leaders had already been extended invitation by the Pakistan Foreign Minister, Hina Rabani Khar, during her India visit earlier this year. The spokesman for the forum patronized by Syed Ali Geelani said Babar Amin telephoned Gilani and invited him to visit Pakistan. “Gilani informed the Pakistani diplomat that he does not have travel documents and the government of India does not provide him passport,” he added. The spokesman said that the forum leaders were not in possession of the documents and that they would only be able to decide on the visit after getting passports.
Pakistan is looking forward to give a very warm welcome to top Kashmiri separatist leadership. Separatists are scheduled to visit Pakistan in near future. Though Mirwaiz Umar Farooq met Pak president Aasif Ali Zardari and Premier Ashraf recently in New York , yet the Mirwaiz led Hurriyat is preparing to visit Pakistan and according to sources the formation of a delegation of the Hurriyat leaders is in process.
“But Hurriyat finds it very difficult to select the delegation because every leader of from the general Council of the amalgam wants to be in the delegation,” sources close to Hurriyat (M) said.
“Mirwaiz on met Shabir Shah at his residence and discussed the possible Pak visit with him, just after he was back from New York a week before”, sources added. Shabir Shah leads the group within Hurriyat(M) which is expressing concerns about the present working of the amalgam. The group including Nayeem Khan as well, had opened a front against Pro Abdul Gani Bhat in recent past about his statement vis-?-vis UN resolutions
