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Tapan Bose, the joint chairman of the People's Election Commission formed by the All Party Hurriyat Conference, said on Tuesday that the panel had started functioning effectively.
Speaking to rediff.com in New Delhi, Bose said that the members of the commission were holding consultations with a large number of people in Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
Bose is also a filmmaker who has done some documentaries on Kashmir.
When asked how the body could function when India and Pakistan were not in favour of the members of the commission meeting each other, he said: "It is unfortunate that we are not being allowed to meet. I don't know when Prime Minister [Atal Bihari] Vajpayee will give up this kind of attitude."
"We may not have met physically but we are in touch with each other through emails and telephone. We have been functioning effectively. Since part of Kashmir is in India and the other part with Pakistan, it was natural that we should have members of the commission from both sides," he said.
When asked about APHC chairman Abual Gani Bhat's comments in rediff.com that the members of the commission were planning to meet in a third country, he said: "Who is Bhat? He may be the chairman of the APHC. But once the commission has been announced it is independent of Hurriyat influence."
"We are doing our job. Rest it depends upon how well the whole thing is projected to the people of Kashmir. We have to plan well and then proceed," he added.
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