*Calls for truce along borders
Excelsior Correspondent
Anantnag, Aug 18: Welcoming Prime Minister, Narendra Modi’s vision to boost intra-SAARC physical connectivity, People’s Democratic Party (PDP) President and Member Parliament, Mehbooba Mufti today said, the forum for South Asian Cooperation can’t realize its full potential unless India and Pakistan end their decades old hostilities and build a cooperative relationship around Jammu and Kashmir.
She said J&K could become a bridge in this new paradigm of intra-SAARC connectivity instead of remaining a bone of contention in the region.
“By boosting connectivity between South Asian countries, SAARC will not only gain relevance but strength as well,” Mehbooba said while addressing a PDP workers convention here.
“While the SAARC vision is rooted in security, economic development and global aspirations of the member states, and in the transformation of a region that is central to our destiny, it can’t happen in isolation and necessitates a cooperative relationship between India and Pakistan with Jammu and Kashmir becoming a hub of new economic collaboration in the region,” she said.
PDP, she said, visualizes and is striving for a space of dignity and opportunity for the people of Jammu & Kashmir in a larger paradigm of friendship between India and Pakistan. “We cannot visualize any alternative to reconciliation and dialogue between our country and Pakistan,” she said and added that the hostility between the two countries has hit the people of J&K the hardest and the incidents on the borders and LoC should keep reminding the two countries the inevitability of sitting across the table to find a just and pragmatic solution to all the contentious issues.
Expressing grief and shock over the recent civilian killings in Balakote sector of district Poonch in shelling from across the border, Mehbooba said for the people of Jammu and Kashmir peace along the borders is of crucial importance as we are in the direct line of fire and suffer the most in such tragic circumstances.
Mufti said whatever the reasons for hardening of stances and attempts by the vested interests to subvert the peace process, there is, however, no substitute to the reconciliatory policy as was done in 2003. “With a decisive mandate at his back Prime Minister, Narendra Modi has the opportunity to revive the process of reconciliation in the sub-continent,” she said and added that the prevailing alarming situation along the borders in Jammu and Kashmir necessitates the urgency of reviving the composite dialogue process, sooner the better.
“We in Jammu & Kashmir understand better what the ordeal of violence is, as it has been our fate to live through and survive its frightening hazards,” Mehbooba said and added that for the people of Jammu & Kashmir, suffering more than two decades of turmoil, has been a long, dark experience, bloody at times and frustrating at almost every step.
The PDP President said the plethora of problems facing the state today, including security concerns, cynicism, alienation, lack of connectivity, economic deprivation, development deficit, rebuilding of flood-hit infrastructure, resource constraints, unemployment and social corrosion have to be taken head-on and the country’s leadership will have to take bold political and economic initiatives to address the security and developmental concerns of the people of Jammu and Kashmir and liberate them from the mentality of psychological and geographical siege.
Minister for Horticulture, Hajj and Auqaf, A R Veeri, Minister for Rural Development and Panchayati Raj, Abdul Haq, Member Parliament, Nazir Ahmad Laway, legislators, Syed Farooq Ahmad Indrabi and Abdul Rahim Rather, PDP General Secretary, Rafi Ahmad Mir, PDP Chief Spokesman, Dr Mehboob Beg, Political Advisor to PDP President, Peerzada Mansoor Hussain, PDP Coordinator for South Kashmir, Mufti Sajad, and PDP District President for Anantnag, Advocate Javaid Sheikh also addressed the convention.
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