New Delhi, December 11
The first meeting of the Working Group on Jammu and Kashmir to strengthen relations between the troubled state and the Centre will be held here tomorrow.
The Chairman of this group is Justice Sageer Ahmad, a former judge of the Supreme Court.
Prime Minister Manmohan Singh had announced the setting up of five working groups at the end of the second round-table conference on J and K held in Srinagar in May.
Dr Singh had proposed that the Working Group could look at the political institutions and arrangements in pursuit of this objective. The focus could be on the security of the people, human rights and good
governance.
Initially, former Chief Justice of the Supreme Court A.M. Ahmadi was chosen as the Chairman of this group in July. As problems arose with Mr Justice Ahmadi heading the Working Group, it was left to J and K Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad to zero in on another person. And Mr Justice Sageer Ahmad was chosen as its Chairman.
Then, the overbearing view among various political parties and groups in J and K was that any political dialogue between the Centre and the state must involve the people's representatives. The National Conference had suggested that the Working Groups should be headed by people divorced from state politics and did not have preconceived ideas or a political agenda of their own.
While the NC wants the restoration of the Jammu and Kashmir's pre-1953 status limiting the Centre's influence to defence, communications and external affairs, the PDP has been talking of self rule.
