Virginia (October 31, 2010): The Kashmir American Council has urged the US president, Barrack Obama to appoint a special envoy on Kashmir for immediate resolution of the vexed issue. Commenting on the scheduled visit of Obama to New Delhi, KAC Executive Director, Dr. Ghulam Nabi Fai said in a statement, “We hope that President Obama will influence both India and Pakistan to initiate peace process with witch the United Nations as well as the people of J&K will be associated so as to ensure that settlement arrived at will be based on the principle of justice.”He said Obama’s visit would prove historic if it begins to move the Kashmir dispute towards a genuine settlement. “It is unfortunate that since 1989, India has taken full advantage of US policy, regardless of the intent of that. Pronouncements to the effect that India and Pakistan must settle the dispute bilaterally have been taken by Indian policy-makers as endorsement of their stand. They may not like the balancing statement that the US regards the whole of Kashmir as disputed territory but they regard it as immaterial,” Dr Fai said.

“Between India’s insistence that a settlement must be within the ambit of its constitution and Pakistan’s demand that it must be based on the international agreement embodied in the UN Security Council resolutions, there cannot be a meeting point which the two governments can find by themselves. Neither can disentangle itself from the massive under growth of the dispute. There needs to be a third way which neither admits nor challenges any claim or proposition on the question of sovereignty over Kashmir nor on the desirability or otherwise of the partition or reunification of the State. Both these questions need to be set aside if the dispute is to be put on the road to a settlement,” he added.