POK 'President' rules out independence for Kashmir

New Delhi, Apr 28 (UNI) Sardar Qayyum Khan, former 'President' and 'Prime Minister' of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK), today ruled out independence for Kashmir describing it as a ''wastage of time and a mental luxury'' for some people.

Addressing a meet the press at the Press Club of India here, the POK leader also dismissed Hurriyat as the true representatives of Kashmiris saying it did not represent the whole of Jammu and Kashmir as a Party.

''...Independence for Kashmir is an impossibility. Do you think anybody would allow an indepdent Muslim country in the region. It is a wastage of time and a mental luxury for some,'' he said in reply to a question.

He said Hurriyat did not represent as a party the whole of Jammu and Kashmir but a sphere of the ''movement,''and added that everybody had a claim to the leadership.

''People know who the true representatives are,'' he said.

Sardar Qayuum Khan also met Prime Minister Manmohan Singh a earlier and discussed the situation in Kashmir. The meeting lasted 20 minutes and the Prime minister apprised him of the steps taken by the government to normalise the situation in the valley.

He is the first POK senior leader to meet the Prime Minister.

Cautioning against certain vested interests, Sardar Qayyum Khan said there was the danger of the India-Pakistan peace process getting derailed.

''Cannot say that it cannot be derailed. Many attempts have been made in the past and many attempts are being made.It can happen...,'' he said.

He, however, said the peace process should be expedited even if it would not be easy.

Concentrating on and taking the peace process forward would automatically end any ''violent activity or militant activity'' and it (peace process) should be taken forward at every cost, he said.

The POK leader also welcomed the role played by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf in taking forward the peace process and said the Pakistan President in the role of an Army man only could have dismantled training camps in POK. No political authority could have done it.

Sardar Qayyum Khan stopped short of suggesting a solution to the Kashmir tangle saying the peace process was important. Solution would automatically follow suit.

UNI