India will allow leaders of All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) to visit Pakistan for talks on Kashmir's future, President General Pervez Musharraf said in an interview published on Tuesday. Pakistan has issued an invitation to APHC to visit on June 2. "Now we have a breakthrough. Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has allowed them to travel to Pakistan," the President told a local daily. "So once they talk to us and they also talk to the Indian government, which we will try to facilitate, we shall have a trilateral arrangement going."
The moderate faction of Hurriyat said its executive council would meet on Wednesday to discuss the invitation from Islamabad.
Shabir Ahmad Shah, whose Jammu Kashmir Democratic Freedom Party was suspended from the Hurriyat nine years ago, said he had accepted the invitation and would be visiting Pakistan.
The President was also upbeat about chances of settling differences over the Siachen Glacier and Sir Creek.
Indian Defence Ministry officials are to begin four days of talks in Islamabad on Thursday focused on the two disputes, described by President Musharraf as "unnecessary irritants which can be resolved".
He said it was possible to pull forces off the uninhabited Siachen Glacier before demilitarising the occupied Kashmir.
The President also fleshed out his vision of the way the Kashmir dispute could be resolved in a way that would lead to self-governance for Kashmiris with some degree of oversight for both India and Pakistan.
The Line of Control had to be bypassed as a sticking point, he said.
"India says the boundaries cannot be redrawn. I keep saying we cannot accept the Line of Control. And I also strongly believe the third element; that borders are becoming irrelevant," he said.
"I can just give you a feel for the kind of approach I am inclined to take," he told the newspaper.
He said regions of Kashmir that needed to be demilitarised should be identified first, in order to stop human rights violations and help Pakistan persuade militants to stop fighting.
Finally, he advocated self-governance for Kashmiris living in these regions as a compromise between independence and the autonomy that India was offering.
"Obviously the Kashmiris should govern themselves. But if (India) is not giving them independence they should be watched over by all three parties."
He said India, Pakistan and the Kashmiris needed to agree together the division of responsibilities.
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