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J&K polls should not be priority, says Shah

Ajay Kaul in New Delhi

Amid efforts to form a non-governmental 'Kashmir Committee' under the leadership of noted advocate Ram Jethmalani, Kashmiri separatist leader Shabir Shah on Tuesday asked the United States to facilitate a dialogue between New Delhi and the separatists prior to the election in the state.

Two days after the US Secretary of State Colin Powell favoured 'free and fair polls' in Jammu and Kashmir, Shah, president of Jammu and Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party, said that election 'should not be a priority if New Delhi wants to resolve the issue permanently'.

Shah, who met a three-member delegation of the US embassy's office, said Powell's comments regarding the polls were discussed during the meeting.

While welcoming Powell's remarks on international observers and release of political prisoners before polls, Shah did not favour polls without 'prior exercise of dialogue, even if that resulted in delay in election'.

"During the meeting, I asked the US to facilitate talks between Kashmiris and New Delhi and India and Pakistan to help resolve the vexed issue," Shah said.

"A process of meaningful, sincere and unconditional dialogue with separatist outfits should precede the polls," he said, adding, "If in the process of dialogue, election emerges as a means to solve the Kashmir issue, we have no hesitation to prove our representative character."

Stating that his party was 'not against the democratic process as we believe in democracy', Shah said the 'past experience, however, shows that polls over the last 52 years have not helped solve the vexed Kashmir issue'.

Shah said Jethmalani was working to constitute a 'Kashmir Committee', a non-governmental body, on the pattern of the one set up in Pakistan at the governmental level.

The committee would possibly comprise six members, Shah said.

He added that he had favoured inclusion of certain 'unbiased' intellectuals, including former foreign secretary Muchkund Dubey, former Delhi high court judge Rajinder Sachar, noted human rights activist Nandita Haksar and Shahi Imam of Delhi's Jama Masjid Abdullah Bukhari.

He said the committee, expected to be constituted soon would interact with the Kashmiris across the border, besides the separatist elements in Kashmir to evolve a solution to the issue.

Shah said that Sardar Abdul Qayoom Khan, chairman of the Pakistani 'Kashmir Committee', had called him up and welcomed the step.

Qayoom planned to send a delegation to India soon for talks, Shah said.

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