Report: Farhan Tariq
Ahead of the All Parties Conference (APC) to be held on June 3 in Pakistan-administered Kashmir hosted by the government and opposition, several nationalist parties in the region have revealed that they have not been invited to attend the conference.
As of midnight on Tuesday, leaders of various nationalist parties confirmed that they had not received any invitations for the APC.
Jammu Kashmir People’s National Party (JKPNP) General Secretary Ilyas Kashmir said that they had not received any invitations for the conference.
He said:
“The parties that are being formed in the APC have been rejected by the Awami Tehreek for the past three years. The people of these parties were rejected to such an extent that representatives of the ruling parties were kept out of the talks between the Joint People’s Action Committee and the Pakistani rulers. So they have been rejected from there too. At this time, they are not stakeholders, the real stakeholders are the people of the region. They are the rejected people of the people. We see the APC in the same context. Just as the people have rejected all these parties, a last attempt is being made to revive them by holding an APC based on the Awami Tehreek, in which they will fail. This APC cannot have any effective role with regard to the Awami Tehreek.”
Nationalist party National Awami Party President Sardar Niaz also took a stand:
“We were not invited to this conference. This is a conference of traditional political parties. Our slogan is that this homeland is ours and we will rule it. We talk about an empowered assembly and want the Charter of Demands of the Aam Aadmi Movement to be fulfilled and chaos not to spread in the region.”
Similarly, Jammu Kashmir National Students Federation (JKNSF) President Dr. Najeebullah also said that his party did not receive any invitation to participate in the All Parties Conference.
On the other hand, Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) Chairman Sardar Saghir also expressed ignorance regarding the conference.
While Prime Minister Faisal Mumtaz Rathore says:
“All political parties have been invited to the All Parties Conference. We have also invited the Action Committee to it. Today we have also sent them a written invitation to be represented from among the core members. In fact, I myself called Shaukat Nawaz Mir and said that I personally want to come to invite you.”
On this, Hafeez Hamdani, spokesperson of the Jammu Kashmir Joint Public Action Committee Muzaffarabad Division, said:
“We are not a political party participating in the All Parties Conference. We are a people’s movement, we have no connection with the All Parties Conference. We are also putting our position in writing before the public after some time.”
On this issue, the Prime Minister’s Spokesperson Shaukat Javed Mir said:
“An all-party conference is being held at the Prime Minister’s House, Muzaffarabad, at 11 am on June 3, hosted by Prime Minister Faisal Mumtaz Rathore and Leader of the Opposition Shah Ghulam Qadir, in which the heads of all political parties or their nominated representatives will participate so that recommendations can be formulated through consensus that are acceptable to all.”
It should be noted that a deadlock had arisen during the round of talks held on May 30 between the governments of Pakistan and its administered Kashmir and the Jammu and Kashmir Joint Public Action Committee. At the end of the talks, the Prime Minister of Pakistan’s Advisor on Political Affairs Rana Sanaullah, while talking to the media, had said that the Azad Kashmir government and the opposition party Muslim League (N) have decided to convene an all-party conference to consult on the current situation and the demands of the Public Action Committee, in which all stakeholders will be taken into confidence.
However, the important thing is that along with the nationalist parties, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf leader and former Prime Minister of Azad Kashmir Khawaja Farooq Ahmed also said that PTI did not receive any invitation to this conference, so Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf is not participating in this All Parties Conference.
When asked how he views this conference, he said:
“I cannot say anything before the conference is held, because we have not been invited to it.”
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