Hurriyat Conference is waiting for a response from the central government on their proposal of visiting Pakistan before holding further rounds of talks with New Delhi. Caretaker chairman of Hurriyat Conference (A) Mirwaiz Umar Farooq said that they are yet to receive any formal or informal reply from the centre over their proposal.
"We have made a proposal to the central government, but so far we have not received any reply in this regard. We are waiting for centre's response.
They have so far maintained a silence over this issue. Hopefully the central government will come up with a response so that things will become clear", he told Kashmir Times here on Friday.
Mirwaiz had recently proposed to visit Pakistan before third round of talks with the centre. His proposal was supported by the chief minister Mufti Mohammed Sayeed who said that there is no harm of allowing the leaders to travel to neighbouring country.
Caretaker chairman also added that there is no proposal of meeting union home minister Shivraj Patil and Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh during their visit to Indian occupied Kashmir. "We have no proposal of holding talks with Patil or Dr Singh during their visit to Indian occupied Kashmir valley this month. We have made it clear that talks' process could be restarted once we are allowed to visit Pakistan", he said.
Earlier reports suggested that Patil during his visit to Indian occupied Kashmir starting on Saturday may try to seek an audience with the separatists which will kick-off the formal dialogue process between the centre and Hurriyat.
Farooq said that the Hurriyat stand is clear that the Indian occupied Kashmir issue can be settled through a process of dialogue but it is not one-sided.
"We feel that talks can only lead to the solution of Indian occupied Kashmir issue. And we are committed on our stand. Pakistan is an important party to this dispute.
There is a separatist leadership in Pakistan which needs to be consulted. So we want that we should be allowed to visit the neighbouring country so that we could talk to the leaders there", he informed the newspaper.