Days after India hosted Baloch leader Nawabzada Hyrbyair Marri in New Delhi, Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Saturday invited Syed Ali Geelani, chairman of a faction of the Hurriyat, to Islamabad.
A letter from Mr. Sharif was handed over to Mr. Geelani by Pakistan High Commissioner Abdul Basit who called on him at Tilak Nagar in Delhi.
Pakistan’s Deputy High Commissioner Mansoor Ahmad Khan and other High Commission officials also met Mr. Geelani and his aide Peer Saifullah, public relations secretary Altaf Ahmad Shah and Hurriyat spokesman Ayaz Akbar.
“I am inviting you to Pakistan, so that I too can gain something from your views on the present situation. Hope that you will spare time to visit Pakistan at the earliest,” reads Mr. Sharif’s letter, according to the Hurriyat spokesman.
“Kashmir is not any border dispute but it is the issue of right to self-determination of 20 million Kashmiri people, and we had conveyed to India in clear terms that there are no possibilities of progress in the relations between the two countries without the Kashmir issue being addressed,” the spokesman quoted Mr. Sharif as saying.
He said the letter promised “full support to the ‘Kashmiri nation’ on political, diplomatic and moral fronts. “It says, Kashmir is the unfinished agenda of the Pakistan formation and ignoring this agenda can never establish friendly relationship between the two countries,” the spokesman said.
The Pakistan delegation reportedly praised Mr. Geelani for his “resolve, determination, commitment and straightforwardness.”
Interestingly, Pakistan has chosen Mr. Geelani, instead of Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, chairman of another faction of the Hurriyat, which supports dialogue with New Delhi. Mr. Geelani opposes talks with the Centre.
