Hailing the Centre’s decision to provide telephone and other facilities to the cross-Line of Control (LoC) traders, patron of PDP Mufti Mohammad Sayeed on Sunday called for more effective steps to win hearts and minds of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
“The decision to provide telephone and other facilities to the cross-LoC traders is endorsement of PDP’s stand because we have been demanding that adequate infrastructure be developed to further boost this trade,” Mr Sayeed said in Srinagar.
He was addressing a function to welcome senior NC leader Tariq Mohiuddin, who joined PDP along with his supporters on Sunday.
Terming the opening of Line of Control (LoC) for the movement of goods and people as the biggest ever Confidence Building Measure (CBM) to improve relations between India and Pakistan, he said PDP has been demanding to institutionalise the cross LoC trade by providing normal trading facilities.
The former Chief Minister said telephone, banking, financial and other normal trade-related facilities were essential for traders of both the countries so as to take maximum benefit of this CBM.
Asserting that dealing with the problem of Kashmir is the biggest challenge before the BJP-led NDA government, Mr. Sayeed reiterated his demand that holistic approach should be adopted by the new government to win hearts and minds of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
“There is need to create job avenues for the unemployed youth of the state,” he said and hoped that new government would follow the path shown by former prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee.
He lavished praise on Vajpayee for initiating historic steps to normalise relations between India and Pakistan and gave credit to the former prime minister for the prevailing peace on borders as, according to him, the ceasefire announced by Vajpayee was one of biggest CBMs between the two countries.
“Only a leader like Vajpayee can take such historic initiative,” he said.
