Excelsior Correspondent
BATOTE (RAMBAN), Sept 24: Hailing decision of Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh to meet his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif on the sidelines of the 68th United Nation General Assembly meeting at New York, patron of People’s Democratic Party (PDP) Mufti Mohammad Sayeed today hoped that the meeting between two leaders would facilitate beginning of a new era of peace, friendship and development in this region.
Prime Minister Dr Manmohan Singh will meet his Pakistani counterpart Nawaz Sharif on September 29 in New York at the hotel where Singh will stay during his US visit. Both Singh and Sharif, who are travelling to New York to attend 68th Session of the UN General Assembly, will be meeting on the morning of September 29.
Addressing an impressive public meeting at Batote, Mufti said that decision of both the Prime Ministers to hold dialogue was a welcome step which should be appreciated and endorsed by all political parties.
“Since friendship with the neighbouring country is inevitable for the growth and progress of entire region, consensus among all political parties could put the desired pace and power into the process of dialogue”, he observed and called all political groups to rise above partisan interests on this issue.
He expressed satisfaction that both the countries have ultimately realized that there was no substitute to the dialogue and this process should be taken to the logical end to frustrate evil designs of the elements inimical to the peace.
“Neither India nor Pakistan can afford hostility for long because peace is imperative for development and economic growth of both the countries,” he pointed out and added that being an emerging economic giant in the world, India had to take some initiative for resuming dialogue with the neighbouring country.
“The reconciliation and peace initiatives started after formation of the PDP-Congress regime in 2002 in the State are an irreversible process,” he observed and said there was no alternative to dialogue and all problems including vexed issue of Kashmir would be solved through dialogue. He said the roadmap laid by the previous PDP-Congress government was the only way to establish lasting peace in the region.
Expressing his serious concern over reports of interference of security establishments in under-mining democratic institutions in the State, he regretted that democracy was never allowed to be flourished in Jammu and Kashmir. “Unlike other parts of the country people of Jammu and Kashmir were deprived of their democratic rights through such techniques”, he said.
PDP patron assured the people that his party would solve their problems. He demanded an independent tourist circuit to connect Patnitop, Sukhmahadev, Mantalai, Bhaderwah and Jai Valley. He said that there was huge potential of water tourism after construction of dam in this region and this potential needed to be properly exploited.
Thakur Balbir Singh, Basharat Bukhari, Peerzada Mansoor, Ch Zulfikar Ali, Sayeed Asgar Ali, Mehboob Iqbal, Saleem Magray, Pritam Kotwal, Talib Hussain, Rajinder Singh Manhas, Sukhdev Sharma, B A Runyal, Imtayaz Khanday and others also spoke on the occasion.
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