Come March-end, People’s Democratic Party (PDP) leader Mehbooba Mufti will visit Pakistan to attend Pugwash conclave on regional stability. Almost two years after mainstream political leaders from Jammu and Kashmir, including National Conference president Omar Abdullah, were hosted by Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf in Islamabad, Mufti will go to Pakistan. This will be Mufti’s maiden visit to Pakistan and she will discuss self-rule, her party said. “I will take this opportunity to put across my party’s viewpoint on Kashmir,” Mufti told The Indian Express.

Mufti will arrive in Pakistan on March 27 to attend the scheduled conclave on March 28-29 at Islamabad. The proposed conclave will discuss problems of regional stability, initiatives that should be taken to promote peace and cooperation in the region, and make recommendations to the respective governments in this regard.

However, the focus of her presentation at the conference will be prospects of Kashmir in Indo-Pak relations. She will give a detailed presentation on the party’s self-rule proposals at the conference.

The visit signals a remarkable change in Pakistan’s attitude towards the Kashmiri mainstream leaders. Earlier, Islamabad did not encourage visits by “pro-India” leaders. However, with Musharraf hosting the Valley’s mainstream leadership in 2006, things changed.

During that visit, Omar Abdullah discussed his party’s autonomy report with Musharraf, without upsetting the General’s positive vibes. And this happened at a time when the Hurriyat delegation, led by Mirwaiz, was hanging around. The meeting with Musharraf came in handy for Abdullah and soon after his return from Pakistan, he went around telling people in Kashmir that Musharraf had appreciated his party’s autonomy report and told him that there was “little difference between NC’s report and Pakistan’s idea of self-governance”.

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