Prime Minister Manmohan Singh may have highlighted the progress in Indo-Pak relations as one of his government’s key achievements when he released the UPA’s three-year report yesterday but, it seems, some things don’t change. The Government has shot down a Pugwash conference on Kashmir in Mumbai saying it won’t grant visas to participants from Pakistan. The conference has, therefore, been cancelled and postponed indefinitely.

This despite the fact that among the Indians scheduled to attend were Chief Information Commissioner and veteran Kashmir bureaucrat Wajahat Habibullah, National Minorities Commission chief Hamid Ansari and top Kashmir leaders, including Omar Abdullah from National Conference, Mehbooba Mufti from PDP, Hurriyat leaders Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, Sajjad Lone, Bilal Lone and representatives of Congress and BJP from J&K.

Ironically, the organiser, the Pugwash Conferences on Science and World Affairs — with offices in Rome, Washington DC, London and Geneva — has renowned Indian agriculture scientist and Rajya Sabha MP M S Swaminathan as its international president.

The conference, to be held in Mumbai on June 2-5, was to be attended by key Pakistani politicians, former diplomats and officials: former Pakistan Army Chief Jehangir Karamat, who was Pakistan’s Ambassador to US until last year; former Pakistan High Commissioner to India Aziz Ahmed Khan; former PM of Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir Sardar Abdul Qayyum Khan; PML (Nawaz) representative Ahsan Iqbal Chaudhary and Chaudhary Latif Akbar from the AJK Peoples Party.

To ensure that a proper cross-section of stakeholders were present, noted public and social workers like Farman Ali from Gilgit and Ismail Khan from Baltistan were also called. Noted Pak scholar Pervez Hoodhboy was to attend as well.

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