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Why Pakistan can't afford to upset Hurriyat

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Gowhar Geelani
Gowhar GeelaniAug 19, 2015 | 17:46

Why Pakistan can't afford to upset Hurriyat

Much to the annoyance of sections of the Indian media, the Pakistani High Commission in New Delhi has extended invitation to pro-freedom Kashmiri leaders for a meeting with country’s national security adviser, Sartaj Aziz, who is scheduled to visit India and meet his Indian counterpart, Ajit Doval, to hold NSA talks on August 23. Interestingly, the Kashmiri leaders have been invited on the same day the national security advisors of both countries are due to meet.

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What does Pakistan’s latest invite to Kashmiri leaders convey?

Before arriving at any hasty conclusions, it is important to contextualise and historicise the entire episode.

Earlier on July 4, the Pakistani High Commission had invited the pro-freedom Kashmiri leadership for an Iftar party, but cancelled it without any explanation.

But on Kashmir’s turf, it was widely believed that the decision to call off the Iftar party was made to facilitate a “smooth” meeting between the Indian Prime Minister, Narendra Modi, and his Pakistani counterpart, Nawaz Sharif, on the sidelines of the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation and BRICS summits in Ufa, Russia.

After the Modi-Sharif meeting in Ufa, the foreign secretaries of both countries issued a joint statement that did not specifically mention the K-word. Skipping of Kashmir from the Pakistan-India joint statement further irked the pro-freedom Kashmiri leadership.

This unexpected “snub” from a country that claims to support the “political struggle of Kashmiris for right to self-determination on political, diplomatic and moral fronts” was no less than a shock for major stakeholders representing the “Azadi sentiment” in the Kashmir valley.

Before Ufa, almost all prime minister-level joint statements (Lahore Declaration, Agra draft, New York, Islamabad, et al) between the two nuclear archrivals would make a mention of Jammu and Kashmir.

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Perchance the Pakistani High Commission soon realised that its decision to cancel/postpone the Iftar party too had not gone down well with the Kashmiri leadership and therefore the leaders were invited for “Eid Milan” after the Modi-Sharif meeting in Russia. But what happened thereafter was what Pakistan had least anticipated.

Pro-freedom Kashmiri players with the likes of octogenarian Syed Ali Geelani, chairman of his faction of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) and Tehreek-e-Hurriyat Jammu and Kashmir (TeH), and Mohammad Yasin Malik, chief of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF), boycotted the Eid Milan hosted by the Pakistani High Commission.

Asiya Andrabi, pro-Pakistan Kashmiri women separatist leader who heads the hardline Dukhtaran-e-Millat (daughter of faith, DeM) also boycotted the function.This was a clear message from Kashmiri leaders that they can no longer be taken “for granted” by Pakistan.

However, Kashmir’s head priest and chairman of moderate faction of APHC Mirwaiz Umar Farooq did attend the Eid Milan. Even he conveyed his “displeasure” about the skipping of Kashmir from the Ufa joint statement and cancellation of Iftar party for Kashmiri leaders.

The entire episode brings back recollections of Narendra Modi first inviting Nawaz Sharif and other leaders of South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation (SAARC) member countries on his swearing-in ceremony in May last year but cancelling the foreign secretary-level talks with Pakistan two months later in August on the pretext that the Pakistani High Commissioner Abdul Basit had met with the Kashmiri leaders in New Delhi.

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The reason given by India to call off foreign secretary-level talks with Pakistan was indeed feeble and unconvincing, given the fact that consultations between the Pakistani High Commissioners and Kashmiri leaders have been a matter of routine and business as usual since the early 1990s.

Foreign policy of a mature democracy, the world’s largest so to speak, should not be inconsistent and immature.

JKLF chief Yasin Malik confirmed to this author that his party has been invited for a reception and meeting with Sartaj Aziz on August 23. The pro-independence group is holding a meeting of its executive body to decide whether to accept or reject the invite.

Pakistan’s deputy high commissioner Mansoor Ahmad Khan had called up Syed Ali Geelani on August 18 to invite him for a meeting with Sartaj Aziz while Yasin Malik was invited for a reception in Aziz’s honour. Kashmiri leaders claim that Pakistan wants to take them on board before resuming formal talks with India. Pakistan does not want to repeat its earlier “faux pas”.

The pro-freedom leadership in Jammu and Kashmir was united in registering its strong protest over the omission of Kashmir in the Ufa joint statement issued by the foreign secretaries of Pakistan and India in Russia on July 10, but it was certainly divided in relation to attending the ‘Eid Milan’ function hosted by the Pakistani High Commission in New Delhi on July 10.

Geelani’s Hurriyat decided to boycott the Eid Milan event to register symbolic protest against the Pakistani government for “sidelining Kashmir” and skipping the K-word in the Ufa joint statement. He also accused Pakistan of showing “unnecessary flexibility” on Kashmir to “please” India.

But, the Mirwaz argued that his participation in the Eid Milan function created “right atmospherics” created by the Modi-Sharif meeting in Ufa.

In the wake of recent tensions on the Line of Control (LoC), ceasefire violations from both sides, deadly attacks in Gurdaspur and Udhampur the NSA talks between India and Pakistan are pretty significant and should not be held hostage to routine matters like Hurriyat leaders meetings with the Pakistani High Commission.

After all, it was IK Gujral who had inaugurated the APHC’s Delhi office.

If India did not call off the scheduled NSA talks after recent attacks in Gurdaspur and Udhampur, it would be unwise and immature to do so because of Kashmiri leaders meeting with Abdul Basit and Sartaj Aziz on August 23.

In the larger interest of India-Pakistan peace process, possibility of resumption of Composite Dialogue Process, and Kashmir-centric Confidence Building Measures (CBMs), permanent peace and development in the region, it is indeed important that both Pakistan and India make their respective foreign policies consistent, mature and foolproof. India should not allow media frenzy to dictate its foreign policy.

All said and done, Pakistan’s fresh invitation has indeed given a sense of satisfaction and achievement to Kashmiri leaders after cold-shoulder earlier in shape of cancellation of the Iftar party. In the Kashmir valley the Pakistani High Commission’s decision to cancel the Iftar party was largely perceived as Pakistan’s "abject surrender" before India.

Last updated: August 20, 2015 | 11:23
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