SHAH ABBAS
Srinagar
Mirwaiz Umar Farooq led separatist amalgam is not unanimous in visiting Pakistan though its executive council has already fixed dates for the tour. Freedom Party Chief Shabir Shah, who also is an executive member of Hurriyat (M), is against the visit before Pak elections which are scheduled next year and before putting the separatist house “in order”. Shah is demanding postponement of the visit.
“We honor and respect the invitation of Pakistan, but we must put our own house in order before visiting Islamabad, what have we to take Pakistan? We are divided; we have desperately failed in institutionalizing Hurriyat Conference. Pakistan is preparing for elections, what are we going to do there in such a situation? So I have conveyed the Hurriyat Conference that this is not the proper time to visit Islamabad,” Shah told Kashmir Life.
“The prevailing political situation in Pakistan is not conducive for such a visit to be fruitful for finding a solution to Kashmir issue. Pakistan is presently engaged in serious internal and external problems. It has little time to think over Kashmir. We can be treated as special guests on our visit there but the visit would little get the desired results”, argued shah.
Sources close to Hurriyat (M) said that Shah’s stand has caused somewhat uneasiness in the amalgam, which is keen to visit Pakistan. Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, who was briefed by Pakistan High Commissioner in New Delhi about the visit, personally met Shah, soon after he returned from New York, and insisted Shah to join the delegation.
The Hurriyat (M) delegation is likely to visit Islamabad, mid next month.
