Kashmir separatists valid stakeholders: Pakistan envoy

Basit hopeful of a way forward in peace process

Two days after New Delhi sent out a stern message to Islamabad cancelling the foreign secretary-level talks, Pakistan’s High Commissioner to India Abdul Basit on Wednesday said he was hopeful of resuming the dialogue with India.

Basit, who had come under attack for meeting Kashmiri separatist leaders, defended his action, saying such meetings have happened in the past and might continue to happen.

“This (meeting Kashmiri leadership) has been a long-standing practice by all previous high commissioners. If we are serious in resolving the matter in a peaceful manner, we have to look at the larger picture. We do not see any problem in this. All stakeholders have to be involved if the Kashmir issue has to be solved in all its sincerity and seriousness,” Basit said at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club here on Wednesday.

Foreign Secretary Sujatha Singh was supposed to travel to Islamabad on August 25 to a meet Pakistani counterpart Aizaz Ahmad Chaudhry. It was expected this might herald a new beginning and resume the composite dialogue, which remains suspended for over two years now.

Basit said though Pakistan’s foreign affairs ministry had called the cancellation of talks a “setback”, he was hopeful of a way forward. He reiterated for a meaningful resolution to the Kashmir dispute issue, it was imperative for Pakistan to meet and understand the standpoint of the representatives of Kashmir.

“They (Kashmiri separatists) are dedicated stakeholders. We have been meeting for years. This is not a new phenomenon. We need to look at this (Kashmir) issue dispassionately. It is incumbent upon us. Pakistan is committed to finding a peaceful solution to the problem. The setback will not discourage us,” he said. Indian External Affairs Ministry spokesperson Syed Akbaruddin refuted the Pakistan high commissioner’s statements that Hurriyat leaders were representative of Kashmiri people. He said there were only two stakeholders in the Kashmir issue – India and Pakistan. This has been the case after 1972 and the signing of the Simla Agreement by the Prime Ministers of India and Pakistan.

“Pakistan assured us, at the highest level, they were committed to a peaceful dialogue on the issue of Jammu & Kashmir and would not allow Pakistan or territories under its control to be used for terrorism against us,” Akbaruddin said.

He added, India knew, particularly after the Mumbai terror attacks and the manner in which Pakistan had pursued subsequent investigations and trials, that this assurance had no meaning and that an approach that was different to the one laid down by the Simla Agreement and Lahore Declaration did not yield results.

Despite repeated warnings by the government, Basit met Kashmiri separatists Hurriyat Conference leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq and Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front's Yasin Malik.

When Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif visited India to attend the swearing-in ceremony of Prime Minister Narendra Modi both sides had vowed to start a "new chapter" in the bilateral ties.