Jammu, March 13 (Scoop News) – Former Chief Minister and patron of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed today offered full support of his party in creating conducive atmosphere for initiating any serious effort for the lasting resolution of Kashmir problem. He said that to make any initiative fruitful and acceptable to all stakeholders, it is necessary to create congenial atmosphere for that.
Addressing a historical public rally at Parade Ground Jammu in which thousands and thousands of party workers from different parts of Jammu participated, Mufti emphasized that dialogue process should be all inclusive and lasting to make such efforts fruitful and meaningful.
Listing four pre-conditions for starting meaningful dialogue, Mufti said that release of political prisoners as well as hundreds of innocent youth languishing in different jails was must. Furthermore, draconian laws AFSPA and Disturbed Area Act (DAA) should be immediately revoked and forces should be withdrawn from the civilian areas. “Government, on record, has stated that infiltration has come down and there is decline in the militancy so there is no reason to keep forces in civilians areas”, he argued.
“After fulfilling these conditions, Prime Minister should convene a Round Table Conference by involving all stake holders including separatists to make the process meaningful”, he said and added that no group could afford to spurn the dialogue offer provided that four conditions would be fulfilled before extending any invitation.
“Addressing genuine concerns of the people of Jammu and Kashmir and restoring their democratic rights are must for developing grounds for dialogue process”, he and demanded that the sense of uncertainty and fear that has gripped the people of the State for the last two years should be removed.Mufti added that releasing political prisoners, innocent youth and revocation of DAA were in the purview of the State Government.
He pointed out that said even after the visit of the all party delegation to the state and announcement of eight point agenda, the government had not taken a single step except appointing interlocutors towards rebuilding the shattered confidence of the people. He emphasized that there was a need of a starting point to break the logjam and restart peace process. “That would not be possible unless the present reign of repression ends and government should take some confidence building measures”, he said.
“Since its formation PDP has been advocating for the peaceful resolution of this problem”, he said and reminded the gathering during the six year tenure of PDP-Congress regime in the State atmosphere was created to take some bold initiatives like opening of some points at Line of Control (LoC), disbanding of notorious SOG, end of repression, restoring dignity and honour of the people, release of political prisoners etc. “It was all due to our sincere efforts that the then Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee, during his historical speech at Srinagar, had extended hands of friendship towards Pakistan despite being the fact that tension was high on border at that time due to the attack on Parliament”, he reminded the gathering, adding, “Prime Minister Dr Manmohan has also played important role in taking our peace process forward. “ Poonch-Rawalkote and Srinagar-Muzaffarabad roads were opened and two round table conferences were held during the regime of UPA”, he said, adding, “what ever steps PDP-Congress regime had taken, the successive Central governments had endorsed that steps due to our convictions and commitments”.Mufti regretted that present regime headed by National Conference has not only reversed the peace process but this dispensation has been creating problems for initiating the process of peace and reconciliation. “This regime is bottleneck in the starting the peace process”, he said.
Reminding the gathering about misdeeds of successive National Conference regimes, Mufti said that people of the state was very much aware of the infamous rigged elections of 1987 and mis-governance of NC from 1996 to 2002. “The present regime has been brazenly following misdeeds of the previous NC regimes”, he said and added that NC continued to thrive on uncertainty.
Mufti also took BJP leadership to task for demanding abrogation of article 370. “BJP and NC had jointly enjoyed power for 5 long years as coalition partners. Why BJP had not raise that demand at that time?”he asked.
Reiterating commitment of PDP to decentralize the powers at regions and sub-regions he said that his party’s Self-Rule document was prepared after incorporating wishes and aspirations of different sections to empower all citizens of Jammu and Kashmir. He termed proposal of his part as the realistic and practical solution to address both external and internal dimensions of Jammu and Kashmir.
The former Chief Minister said that PDP leader said that Jammu and Kashmir has suffered huge financial loss due to discriminatory water treaties and the self rule proposes to compensate the State due to these Treaties. He further demanded that Uri, Salal and Dulhasti hydro electric projects should be handed over the State besides renegotiating agreements with NHPC. “If we properly utilise our water resources our income would be more than Rs 50,000 crore”, he said.
While throwing light on Self-Rule proposal, he said article 356 should not be implemented in Jammu and Kashmir. The self rule aimed at creating Jammu and Kashmir as a bridge between India and Pakistan and to develop this belt as Free Trade zone. He made a reference towards resolution of SAARC to make South Asia as Trade Free Zone. “On experiment basis let us start his process from this region”, he said and pointed out that PDP also suggested formation of joint councils of both parts of Kashmir to resolve common issue.
Speaking on the occasion, PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti assured that gathering her party would fulfill aspirations of all regions and sub-regions of the State. She reminded that the gathering during the regime of PDP-Congress regime equal treatment was given to all regions of the State. She said that all people of all regions have been bearing brunt of the violence and there was a need to unitendly work for restoring peace in the State. PDP chief said that people of Jammu would also be involved in the process of solving Kashmir problem because people of this region were equal stakeholder in the issue.
Senior leaders T S Bajwa, Ab Aziz Zargar ,General Secretary Th Balbir Singh , Rangil Singh, MLCs Murtaza Ah Khan, Syed Asgar Ali , Nizamudin Khatana MLA’s Sartaj Madni, A R Veeri, Zahoor Ah Mir, Peer Mansoor Hussain, Nizamudin Bhat, Javaid Mustafa Mir, Ab Haq Khan, Mohd Khalil Bandh, Ch Zulufkar Ahmed , Ch Rafiq Hussain Khan, Sofi Ab Gaffar, Dr Mohd Shafi , Ab Razaq Zawoora and Mushtaq Ahmed Shah of the party, Sernior leaders Ved Mahajan, Shanti Devi , Falail Singh, Daman Bhasin, R K Bali, Suram Singh, Shanti Devi, Sukhdev Singh, Baji Muzaffar , Partap Sharma Ch Rashid Malik, Ch Rafiq Malik, Rajinder Singh Manhas, District Presidents R K Bali, Ab Ahad Wani, Mujib Ali, Surinder Singh, Shakir Sideequi, Dupinder Koue, Surjeet Kour, Capt. Anil Gour, Ashok Bhat, S K Raina, Ranjive Kumar, Reyaz Zargar, Youth vice President Rajinder Singh Manhas , Nadeem Hussain Khan, Pawan Dev Singh, Deepu Chib, Ahsan Mirza, Showkat deng, Sushila Jamwal, Shahzad Khan, SuramSingh , Anita Kumari Reyaz Atish, Adv Pandey Virender Singh sonu, Digvijay singh all zonal presidents and others leaders from different regions of Jammu were present in the meeting.