Form panel from both sides: Mehbooba to Shah on PoK

Srinagar, July 27

PDP chief Mehbooba Mufti Saturday said Home Minister Amit Shah should make efforts to form a joint committee of people’s representatives from both sides of Jammu and Kashmir to discuss the issues the region faces “till the time you bring that part back”.

Speaking at the 25th Foundation Day function of the People’s Democratic Party (PDP), she said, “Amit Shah says he will bring back that Kashmir (Pakistan-occupied Kashmir) even as you tell us Muslims to go to Pakistan.” “But I have a request for you. Till the time you bring that part back, form a committee of the representatives of this Kashmir and that Kashmir, and bring us together. We will sit together twice a year and discuss the issues we face,” the PDP president added.

She asked Shah to put aside his “ego” for the sake of the nation and facilitate a meeting of representatives of the people from both sides of the Line of Control (LoC), similar to what former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee did during his tenure.

“Do you have courage Amit Shah sahib? You keep saying you will bring back that Kashmir. That Kashmir is far, bring 20 of their representatives and 20 representatives from our side and let us sit together,” Mufti said.

“Can you do that? Do you have the courage to do that? Do you have such patriotism in you like Vajpayee that you sacrifice your ego for Jammu and Kashmir?” she asked.

The former chief minister of the erstwhile state of J-K, also called for reopening cross-LoC routes to facilitate trade and people-to-people contact.

She said her father and former chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed—under whose government these routes were opened—wanted to open all cross-LoC routes.

“I want to tell Amit Shah to reopen those routes across the LoC which were opened by Mufti Sahib and which you closed in the name of drugs, even as most of the drugs come via a port in Gujarat and you do not shut that. Restart those routes and open more roads which join J&K with Central Asia,” she added.

Mufti called for the release of youth of Kashmir jailed in various prisons across the country.

“If you say that the situation has improved here, then why are our youths in jails? Even their cases are not heard in the courts. If you have courage, then release them if the situation has improved.”

“You have to resolve it (J&K) if you want the people not to support self-determination or not to look across, but look towards here, this country,” she added.

Referring to the reports of banned Jamaat-e-Islami (JeI) showing willingness to contest assembly polls, Mufti said it was a welcome move. The PDP chief said she is happy that the JeI will once again return to mainstream politics.