Hurriyat leaders meet Pak PM

ISLAMABAD, Dec 17:
Pakistan seeks to resolve the Kashmir issue on the basis of UN resolutions and aspiration of the Kashmiri people, Prime Minister Raja Pervez Ashraf said today.
Islamabad’s engagement with the Hurriyat Conference is a “positive development and a recognition of the just cause of the people of Kashmir,” Ashraf was quoted as saying in a statement issued by his office after his meeting with the seven-member All Parties Hurriyat Conference delegation led by Hurriyat chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq.
The country seeks to “resolve the Kashmir issue on the basis of United Nations resolutions and aspiration of the Kashmiri people,” he said.
Ashraf told the separatist leaders that there was “consensus in Pakistan among all political parties on the Kashmir issue”.
In this connection, he referred to the appointment of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman as the chairman of parliament’s Kashmir Committee.
He further said Pakistan “takes pride” in the struggle waged by the Kashmiris for “their right of self determination”.
He praised the “political acumen and wisdom of the Hurriyat leadership” in its efforts to highlight the case of the Kashmiris and assured them that “Pakistan fully stands behind them”.
Farooq thanked the premier and said the people of Kashmir “value the unconditional support of the Government and the people of Pakistan”.
Foreign Minister Hina Rabbani Khar and Information Minister Qamar Zaman Kaira were present during the meeting.
The Hurriyat delegation is visiting at the invitation of the Pakistan Government to discuss ways to push forward efforts to resolve the Kashmir dispute.
Yesterday, the delegation met leaders in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
Other members of the delegation include Abbas Ansari, Abdul Ghani Bhat, Bilal Ghani Lone, Agha Syed Hasan Al-Moosvi and Mussadiq Adil.
Following a separate meeting with PML-Q leaders, including Deputy Prime Minister Chaudhry Pervaiz Elahi, Farooq said the benefits of the improved relationship between India and Pakistan should be extended to the Kashmiri people.
Farooq said he had been informed by the PML-Q leaders that they believed no solution could be found to the Kashmir issue if the Hurriyat was not involved in the peace process.
“The main purpose of our visit is to hold talks with the Pakistani leadership to frame a strategy to make Kashmiris part of the process,” he said.
He said he had urged Pakistani leaders to take up with their Indian counterparts the need to extend to the Kashmiri people the benefits of the friendship between the two countries. (PTI)

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