Umer Farooq welcomes Sharif's nod to Modi's invite

Welcoming Pakistan premier Nawaz Sharif's decision to attend Narendra Modi's oath-taking ceremony as Prime Minister, Moderate Hurriyat conference chairman Mirwaiz Umer Farooq today said his amalgam is ready to contribute positively to any "sincere and serious" effort to resolve the Kashmir issue.
"We had welcomed the decision to invite Pakistan Prime Minister. It is a good thing Nawaz Sharif has decided to come. We expect that a sustained dialogue will start in near future between India and Pakistan... We are always ready to contribute positively to any sincere and serious effort for resolution of Kashmir issue," Mirwaiz told reporters here.

He said Hurriyat has always supported improvement in relations between the two countries as "we feel that Kashmir issue also cannot be resolved till the trust and confidence of the two countries in each other does not strengthen".
Mirwaiz said both the governments in India and Pakistan have got strong mandate from their respective people and it was a good opportunity for them to resolve the 65-year-old Kashmir issue.
"Besides talking about issues, we hope that they will talk on the core issue of Kashmir as well so that ways of resolving this issue are found in a time-bound manner," he said.

"Although it is limited to oath-taking, we are hopeful that bilateral dialogue between India and Pakistan will move forward and in near future this process will be given a shape," he said.
Advocating for involvement of Kashmiri representatives in the composite dialogue process, the Hurriyat chairman said, "Whenever India and Pakistan start a bilateral dialogue, they should include Kashmiri representatives to move forward."
Mirwaiz also said it was good thing that the leadership of SAARC region have got an opportunity to sit together.