The second meeting of the Pugwash Initiative on Kashmir was held from 10 to 12 March in Islamabad under the broad theme 'Prospects for Self-Governance in Jammu and Kashmir, and Present Status of Cooperation and Communications across the LOC'. The first conference was held in Kathmandu from 11 to 14 December, 2004. The agenda for the Islamabad meet was decided in consultative meetings held separately for the Indian and Pakistani participants.

The conference was held when the ongoing peace process is facing rough weather in both the capitals, and lukewarm response in Kashmir, but this conference, has brought dynamism back into the peace process thanks to its wide representation. The single most important achievement of the Pugwash Conference has been to bring together various shades of opinion in Jammu and Kashmir ranging from the National Conference to the Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) to the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) to the Balawaristan National Front (BNF) to the Panthers Party and the Socialist party in POK onto one forum and given them an opportunity to share their views with the others present. This initiative is one of its kind and is distinctive amidst many similar initiatives like the Neemrana Initiative for the simple reason that Pugwash is not supported or funded by a single country, unlike the Neemrana Initiative which began as an American initiative. The neutrality of the initiative is emphasized by the fact that Pugwash does not indulge in any back-channel diplomacy to influence the governments in India and Pakistan or the separatists to accept its preferred solution to the problem: the decision on a solution to the problem is left to the parties concerned. Unlike other initiatives, moreover, the Pugwash Initiative on Kashmir does not avoid media publicity, which serves the larger purpose of creating a momentum for the peace process and clarifies to the world that the initiative is completely transparent.

The Kathmandu conference from 11 to 14 December 2004 had clearly demonstrated that Pugwash is a neutral forum. There has been an advance. While it cannot be claimed that the Islamabad conference in March 2006 will now deliver results, it is in a position to undertake workable and sustainable initiatives with the cooperation of all the parties to the conflict. The issues that the Pugwash meetings on Kashmir have taken up like self-governance to initiate discussion among its participants have captured the imagination of its participants and have imbued great seriousness among the policy making circles in both the countries.

Even as the presentations by various participants revolved around themes like self-governance, demilitarization, need to end violence and create conditions for lasting peace in Kashmir, there was no set agenda for the meeting. The opening day saw two plenary sessions, held under Chatham House rules, with individual participants highlighting what they thought was important for the conference. On the second day there were separate meetings of the participants from Jammu and Kashmir and those from other parts of India and Pakistan. These separate meetings were designed to let the participants brainstorm their concerns to be shared with the larger group at a later stage. The afternoon session on the same day was spent discussing the views expressed in the pre-lunch meetings.

While there was neither a consensus document issued by the Pugwash participants at the end of the conference nor was there a specific agenda on which participants focused their presentations, self-governance, demilitarization, and need to end violence were the major themes discussed. As the participants had interacted with Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf on the first day of the conference, it was only natural that his ideas regarding self-governance and joint management of Kashmir, dominated the discussions during the rest of the conference. However, neither the President nor the discussions which followed his address attempted to define these two concepts in the context of Kashmir.

The last session of the conference witnessed a unanimous view that all types of violence must end in Kashmir. It was also agreed by the participants that more shades of opinion should be brought into the Pugwash initiative on Kashmir so that no one feels left out in what has become the most representative dialogue process on Kashmir.

(The author participated in the Pugwash conference on 'Prospects for Self-Governance in Jammu and Kashmir, and Present Status of Cooperation and Communications across the LOC' in Islamabad from 10 to 12 March 2006)