Puppet regime minister in occupied valley realizes Kashmir solution imperative for peace

SRINAGAR (SANA): In a step forward to resolve the rocky Kashmir dispute, the National Conference president and union minister for new and renewable energies Dr Farooq Abdullah said his party will soon convene a working committee meeting to discuss the possibility of chalking out a joint document with the main opposition party PDP and Hurriyat Conference aimed at the permanent resolution of Kashmir issue.

Dr Abdullah’s statement came two days after the noted jurist and columnist A G Noorani had suggested NC to sit with the PDP to evolve a consensus on redrafting of Article 370.

“A. G. Noorani had also suggested that a common document be prepared.

He had expressed this thing to my Finance Minister (Abdul Rahim Rather) in a meeting that rather than having separate documents, a unified document be prepared and put before the Government of India.

It is a thing to be considered,” Dr Farooq told reporters at Sher-e-Kashmir Cricket Stadium here, today.

The former Chief Minister added that he had read in the newspapers that PDP patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed would like to have deliberations with National Conference on the autonomy issue and see whether autonomy and self rule can be dovetailed and see how we can cooperate and make it into a common document.

“We will call a meeting of the working committee on this very issue and put our heads together,” Dr Farooq averred. Asked about any chances to work together with Hurriyat Conference, the Union Minister for New and Renewable Energies replied in affirmative.

“We are ready to work with anybody to find a solution (to Kashmir issue) . a solution that is acceptable to majority of people in India, majority of people in Pakistan and majority of people in Jammu and Kashmir. There cannot be a solution which is acceptable to just one person.”

Favouring Union Home Minister P Chidambaram’s stand on ‘quiet dialogue diplomacy’ the NC president said that it is an important thing that they (Government of India) talk without too much of fuss and too much of press. “I think this is what happened last time when Majid Dar was talking. I think the talks failed because the hype given to it was so much that it was exposed before anything was through. I think they paid with their lives,” he added.

When asked about any deliberations over Noorani’s suggestion of a joint document, for the settlement of Kashmir issue, senior leader of Hurriyat Conference (M) Abdul Ghani Bhat while talking to Kashmir Times said that so far no offer has been received by the separatist amalgam in this regard. “So far we have not discussed this issue but we will sit and see whatever is possible,” he added.

Noorani, at the seminar on Self Rule organised by the PDP, had stated that Kashmir needed much more than a guarantee, as Kashmiris have been repeatedly cheated by none other than former Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru himself.

The noted jurist had appealed to professors, lawyers, political scientists, scholars and other professionals in Kashmir, not let India and Pakistan monopolise the discourse on Kashmir. Noorani stressed on a solution to Kashmir issue which will be acceptable to the entire stake holder.

On this occasion, the former chief minister and PDP patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed had asked the National Conference to support the PDP for a consensus on some broader points on Kashmir. “I think Article 356 should not be applicable to the State. So let us agree on some broader points,” Sayeed had said.