J A M M U   &   K A S H M I R

Qureshi against jumbo-sized PCC
JAMMU, May 28 — A small-sized Pradesh Congress Committee will be constituted in place of the 64-member committee which has been dissolved to make the party functional till an elected PCC takes over in November.

4 killed in road accident
UDHAMPUR, May 28 — At least four persons, including a woman, were killed while another sustained injuries when the Matador in which they were travelling skidded off the road and plunged into a deep nullah in Udhampur district today.

Qureshi against jumbo-sized PCC
Tribune News Service

JAMMU, May 28 — A small-sized Pradesh Congress Committee will be constituted in place of the 64-member committee which has been dissolved to make the party functional till an elected PCC takes over in November.

This was stated by the recently installed PCC president, Mr Mohd Shafi Qureshi, at a news conference here today. He said, in reply to a question, that a committee had to be installed to make the organisation act as a responsible and effective Opposition party in Jammu and Kashmir. He made it clear that he was not in favour of a jumbo-sized PCC because when everybody that mattered in party became an office-bearer the organisational work got adversely affected.

Mr Qureshi said the “non-performance” and “misrule” of the Farooq-led National Conference government had given enough material to the Opposition to expose the ruling party, but the Congress so far had failed to play the role of an effective Opposition party. He said he would bring the Congress out of its slumber and raise people’s problems and fight corrupt practices.

Asked whether he said his party would support the NC demand for greater autonomy, Mr Qureshi said: “Issues can be discussed so long as they do not divide the state communally and ethnically.” He made it clear that he was nowhere in the picture as far as the proposed talks between the government and the Hurriyat Conference were concerned. The Congress “is neither in power at the Centre nor in Jammu and Kashmir and as such we shall watch the situation that may arise out of the proposed talks.” The Congress, he asserted, would intervene only when “we see that the interests of the state and the country are in danger.”

The PCC chief said Congress workers and leaders were ready for sacrifices for protecting the integrity and dignity of the country and the state. The Congress surrendered power in 1975 when the Sheikh-Indira accord was viewed as a development for the interest of the state, “he said adding that “our job is to highlight the people’s problems and the shortcomings of the state government.”

He did not see much in reports of groupism in the party and said he would carry everybody with him so that the Congress became a strong organisation which was the need of the hour.

Mr Qureshi has started securing the support of different group leaders within the organisation.

Senior Congress leader S.S. Surjewala, who accompanied him to Jammu on Friday, said the state unit of the Congress had suffered erosion because it had no leader of the stature of Mr Qureshi who was the first Kashmiri to introduce the Congress in the valley in 1966.

Mr Qureshi said he had lost 21 relatives in militancy-related violence during the past 10 years. He house in Srinagar was the first residential building of a political leader that had been partially damaged in a bomb blast in early 1989.

SRINAGAR (TNS): Pledging to serve the masses in Jammu and Kashmir, PCC chief Mohammad Shafi Qureshi here on Sunday urged his party men to work for winning people’s hearts in the valley.

“This time we have not come for power. Farooq Sahib should not worry,” Mr Qureshi said while addressing his party workers on the lawns of the Pradesh Congress Committee headquarters. “We give him two years’ time to win the hearts of the people, if he can.”

It was his first address to party workers at the PCC headquarters soon after his arrival in Srinagar from Jammu.

While most of his speech was aimed at asking the workers to reunite, he also attacked the National Conference government. He referred to the role of the security forces and “imported bureaucrats” and the increasing unemployment among educated youth, particularly in the valley.

Mr Qureshi also referred to Chief Minister Farooq Abdullah’s “love for golf and singing ghazals”. “Is it the time for singing?” Mr Qureshi asked.

It was for the first time during the past one decade that the PCC head office wore a “festive” look. A shamiana on the lawns of the otherwise deserted area under security cover was the meeting place of more than 100 party workers from different places.

Mr Qureshi was accompanied by Mr S.S. Surjewala, Congress observer from New Delhi, and was received at the airport by a group of party workers. Among those present were senior leader and former legislator G.M. Mir Rajpuri. Many other senior leaders, including a former PCC chief, Choudhary Mohammad Aslam, Ghulam Rasool Kar and Taj Mohiuddin preferred to stay away.

4 killed in road accident

UDHAMPUR, May 28 (UNI) — At least four persons, including a woman, were killed while another sustained injuries when the Matador in which they were travelling skidded off the road and plunged into a deep nullah in Udhampur district today.

Official sources said the driver was negotiating a sharp curve along at Dudhar Nullah, when the mishap occurred.

The driver was seriously injured.