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Marriage provides platform for politics

The much-publicised wedding of Hurriyat Conference leader Abdul Gani Lone's son and Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front chairman Amanullah Khan's daughter Sunday became a platform for the two leaders to vow to continue the struggle for an independent Jammu and Kashmir.

Just before the final ceremony of the marriage at the Royal Green Palace Hotel in Rawalpindi, a large gathering of leaders belonging to the either side of the Line of Control was virtually converted into a public meeting by Khan.

The gathering had been invited on the occasion of the rukhsat ceremony with Khan bidding farewell to his daughter, Asma Khan, who became the wife of Sajjad Lone, the second son of Abdul Gani Lone, and was escorted to her new house -- presently a rented accommodation in Islamabad -- by her father-in-law and his family.

While welcoming a large number of guests, Khan said: "'When politicians meet, they do not discuss weather." He said there were ways to solve the Kashmir problem to the satisfaction of "India, Pakistan and the Kashmiris."

Lone said this was like any other wedding, with the only difference that it was a reflection of "our determination to convey both to India and Pakistan our resolve to ensure that Jammu and Kashmir is reunited in the manner in it existed in 1947."

Khan expressed happiness that so many people, including about 25 guests of Lone, from the either side of the Line of Control had come together.

However, he condemned India for not giving passports to many of those invited for the marriage. He mentioned in this context the name of G M Shah, former chief minister of Jammu and Kashmir and O P Shah, among others.

Khan said notwithstanding his political differences, he had sent invitations to all present and former Indian prime ministers, but only one - ex-prime minister, I K Gujral -- acknowledged it.

He said he had also invited Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Dr Farooq Abdullah and Union Minister of State for Civil Aviation Chaman Lal Gupta, because both of them belonged to the undivided Jammu and Kashmir.

Similarly, he said, Pakistan had not issued visas to some of his guests, which he described as an "unfortunate"' development.

He said he wished that Indian and Pakistan governments had shown the same spirit with which he had invited his political adversaries.

Earlier, Khan read out a message from the Pakistan President Rafiq Tarar, who conveyed his best wishes to the newly weds saying that he was unable to attend the wedding because of his pre-occupations.

Former Pakistan prime minister Benazir Bhutto too sent a congratulatory message in which she said the union of two families belonging to the either side of the LoC was "a welcome sign."

UNI

ALSO SEE Lone gets permission to attend son's wedding in PoK

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