Peerzada Ummer
Early Times Report
Srinagar, Oct 8: At a time when the separatist leaders are seen parroting the diktats coming from Pakistan, shocking revelations are coming to fore that the country out-rightly ignored them during its back channel talks with the government of India on Kashmir in 2007.
Quoting the Indian negotiator, Indian Express on Thursday reported that the final draft of the framework agreement revealed that both the countries agreed on a "consultative mechanism", made up of elected representatives of the governments of Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, as well as officials of the two national governments. The consultative mechanism, the negotiator said, was mandated to address regional "social and economic issues", like tourism, religious pilgrimages, culture and trade.
Reports informed further that the former Prime Minister Manmohan Singh's hand-picked envoy, Ambassador Satinder Lambah, and General Musharraf's interlocutors, Riaz Muhammad Khan and Tariq Aziz, held over 200 hours of discussions on the draft agreement, during 30 meetings held in Dubai and Kathmandu. Lambah, a former intelligence official recalled, was also flown to Rawalpindi on a Research and Analysis Wing jet as negotiations reached an advanced stage, travelling without a passport or visa to ensure the meetings remained secret. "In early talks," the Indian diplomat said, "Pakistan reiterated its public positions, calling for international monitoring of the Line of Control, and so on. However, it became clear that both General Musharraf and Prime Minister Singh were keen on arriving at an agreement that would allow them to focus on their respective agendas, without conflict over Kashmir sapping their energies." "Each paper exchanged between the two sides," the diplomat said, "was read by him personally, and his instructions were then given to Lambah. There were just two people in the Cabinet, and perhaps three more in the bureaucracy, who were privy to what was going on." The leaks have now taken the lid off from the perception that the Pakistan wants separatists to emerge as leaders in Kashmir.
The speculations have once again been vindicated that the Pak authorities have been using the separatist leaders to meet their own vested ends and no effort has so far been made by the country through which it could have been proved that it really cares for them.
Meanwhile, the secret documents about the negotiations that were at peak in 2007 have been handed over the Prime Minister Narendra Modi. Reports informed that key to the agreement, the Indian negotiator said, was an understanding that it would not require ratification by Parliament, or a Constitutional amendment. Thus, the two sides agreed to treat the Line of Control "like an international border", with agreements to allow for the free movement of goods and people. Following cessation of "violence and terrorism", the two sides were to draw down military forces on both sides of the Line of Control to a minimum though India was permitted to maintain full-scale defensive positions.
In the end, it has been proven once again that even in the sight of Pakistan, those elected during the elections could represent people of the state in future too- something that was kept hidden from the people of Kashmir since decades. |
