While addressing a joint press conference with the Jamaat Islami (JI) leadership here on Saturday, Mirwaiz Umar Farooq lauded the JI stance that the Kashmir was not an issue between India and Pakistan, and the Kashmiri people and the Kashmiri leadership were the most important party in the matter, and a permanent solution of the issue could not be found out by ignoring them.
The APHC delegation discussed the progress in regard to the solution of the Kashmir issue with the JI leaders and the different options for the solution of the issue in accordance with the Kashmiris aspirations. JI Secretary General Liaqat Baloch headed the JI team in the absence of JI Ameer Syed Munawar Hasan who is in Karachi in connection with the wedding of his son. JI Deputy Chief Muhammad Aslam Saleemi, Dr Farid Ahmed Piracha and Chief of the JI Foreign Wing, Abdul Ghaffar Aziz, received the delegation at Mansoora.
Liaqat Baloch said people of Pakistan were sure that the sacrifices rendered by the Kashmiris won't go waste and they would soon achieve their goal of freedom. He said the root cause of tension between India and Pakistan was the Kashmir issue and the people of both the countries were suffering because of the stubbornness of the Indian leadership on the matter. However, he said, the Indian leaders should realise that the things were rapidly changing in the world and it could continue its unlawful hold on Kashmir long.
The JI leader said the relations between India and Pakistan could not improve with the exchange of cultural troupes and the trade of potatoes and onions, nor a lasting peace could be achieved this way.
Liaqat Baloch stressed upon the UN and the world community to pressurise New Delhi to hold plebiscite in Kashmir. He said there was complete unanimity among the political parties of Pakistan so far as the Kashmiris right to self determination was concerned. Mirwaiz Umar Farooq appreciated the JI had always been a bold supporter of the Kashmiris and had also rendered huge sacrifices for the Kashmir cause.