Pitching for “self-rule” for Jammu and Kashmir and the return of Pandits, Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Saturday urged India and Pakistan to “start dialogue” and “resolve the contentious issues.”
“India and Pakistan shall have to sit across the table and resolve the contentious issues. We have to unshackle ourselves from the legacies of the past. The two countries cannot run away from the negotiations for too long because such a negative approach will only add to the miseries of the people of the State,” she said in the Assembly.
She called for an “uninterruptable dialogue” and asked both countries to “come out of their aggressive stand and start a programme for exchange of students, doctors, scientists and artists, which will boost bilateral relations.” “Unfortunately, the goodwill generated by Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s visit to Lahore was washed away by the dastardly attack on the Pathankote airbase,” she said.
Ms. Mufti said her government was committed to revoking the Disturbed Areas Act. “It will pave the way for doing away with the Armed Forces (Special Powers) Act.”
Incomplete social fabricShe said Kashmir’s social fabric would be incomplete without the Pandits. “An enabling environment will facilitate their gradual return. Transit accommodations need to be provided to them till they are able to resettle at their native places.” She said her government was committed to bringing the Pandits back.
As for Sainik colonies for former soldiers, Ms. Mufti said: “A proposal was made in 2011. The society under which the colony is being proposed was inaugurated by Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah in 1975. But we have told them [the society] that there was no land available now,” she said.
Pitching for “self-rule,” Ms. Mehbooba said work was in progress for implementing various elements of this roadmap for resolution of the problems of the State. “And fortunately, the BJP is partnering us to revive and carry forward the reconciliation and confidence-building process in the State and the region,” she said.
The Chief Minister said her party would work towards “facilitating closer ties across the Line of Control, making the borders irrelevant and reviving the State’s traditional connectivity with the outside world to pave the way for economic and social integration of the region through a common economic market.”
Targets OppositionTargeting the Opposition National Conference, Ms. Mufti said: “Unfortunately, they want me to get all that back, including power projects and water resources, in just two months, which they surrendered while being in power for over three decades [in J&K].”
Ms. Mufti said it was for the first time since Independence that national consensus on J&K was become possible, and “even the BJP was now committed through its ‘Agenda of Alliance’ with the PDP to protecting the special status of J&K.”
