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No decision without passports: Butt

The All-Parties Hurriyat Conference said on Thursday that its executive council would meet again to chart out its strategy if the government does not issue travel documents to all seven members of the council by January 15, the date on which an APHC team is to visit Pakistan to initiate a dialogue with the leaders of the militants.

"The Government of India has to issue passports and other travel documents to all seven council members, before we nominate our team that will visit Pakistan," APHC chairman Abdul Gani Butt told the United News of India in Srinagar.

"If I select a member and the Government of India does not issue travel documents to him, it will definitely create misunderstandings, which I want to avoid," he explained.

Professor Butt said, "If the Centre is sincere to make the peace process a success, it will issue travel documents to all the seven members."

Meanwhile, political analysts in New Delhi said Jamaat-e-Islami leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani's vitriolic campaign against India appeared to be calculated to scuttle the Hurriyat's move to participate in the peace process.

His observation that Kashmir is not a political issue but a movement for jihad is seen as intransigent at a time when Hurriyat leaders are planning to send a team to Pakistan for discussions to work out an amicable solution to the problem.

It will also make it difficult for the government to issue him travel documents for visiting Pakistan as his views are quite contrary to the positive approach of the other Hurriyat members.

Geelani had filed an application for a passport two years ago, but "has driven himself into a corner by his provocative statements".

Although the government has not taken a final decision on the issue of passports for Hurriyat leaders, it has said the applications will be considered under "existing norms".

The Hurriyat, already plagued by differences on the issue of dialogue, has so far not reached any consensus on the composition of its team to Pakistan.

Prof Butt has been authorised to select the team, but is awaiting the government's nod on the issue of travel documents.

UNI

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