Dealing  J&K is a biggest challenge before new NDA Govt: Mufti

“J&K needed a holistic approach to come out of its immense problem”

Poonch: Reiterating resolve of his party to act as a facilitator to restore lasting peace in this sub-continent, patron of the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), Mufti Mohammad Sayeed today said that biggest challenge before the new government at New Delhi is to deal with the sensitive issue of Jammu and Kashmir. He hoped new government headed by Mr Narendra Modi would follow the holistic path shown by former Prime Minister Mr Atal Behari Vajapyee while dealing with problems of Jammu and Kashmir.

Addressing an impressive public meeting at Poonch today, Mufti said that peace is the only option to move ahead on development path and resolve all sensitive issues. He argued that Jammu and Kashmir needed a holistic approach to help it come out of its immense problems.

While emphasizing on the adopting human approach to restoring lasting peace in this region, Mufti regretted that residents of Jammu and Kashmir are facing hardship due to mis-governance of the present regime headed by National Conference.

“Governance deficit is not only increased in the last nearly six years but what is a cause of a greater worry is the erosion of credibility of our democratic institutions”, he observed.

He said that governance deficit and trust deficit are the main causes of ever increasing alienation of the people so there is a need to restore peoples’ faith in governance and democracy.

“PDP is committed to bridge the gap between different regions and also between people of Jammu and Kashmir and rest of the country”, he said, adding “During our tenure we had proved how to treat all regions and sub-regions equally and party would further facilitate the process of bridging the gap to ensure justice and equality to all regions and sub-regions”,

 

Reiterating resolve of his party to give voice to the masses of Jammu and Kashmir, Mufti said that his party has successfully challenged hegemony of National Conference and emerged as credible voice of the people. He said that it was result of the conviction and commitment of the party leadership that PDP, in short span of time, has credibility of the people of all the three regions of the State. He especially mentioned towards results of recently held Lok Sabha polls in which National Conference was completely washed out in whole State.

“Our aim is not to attain the power by deceiving the people”, he said and reiterated that one and only agenda of PDP is to establish lasting peace and to restore dignity and honour of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.

“I remained as Home Minister of the country as well as Chief Minister of the State so power is not my priority”, he said and added that his dream was to solve Kashmir problem to establish peace and tranquillity in this region and to strengthen regional and sub-regional integration. He sought support of the people to further pursue the pro-peace agenda of the PDP.

Reiterating his commitment to make Poonch as “Gateway to Kashmir”, Mufti said that opening of Mugal road and LoC for crossing and trade is going to change destiny of the people of Poonch.

Terming opening of points on LoC as most significant CBM since 1947, Mufti that opening of Uri-Muzafferabad and Poonch-Rawlakote roads has liberated people of Jammu and Kashmir from seize which they had been facing after partition of the country.

While reminding the people about steps taken by the PDP regime to complete work on Mughal road, he told the people that Poonch would be soon emerged as “Gateway of Kashmir” and this belt would be a biggest business centre of this sub-continent. He reminded that during the regime of PDP led regime various steps were taken for the development of this land locked border districts of Poonch and Rajouri.

In the function Mufti reiterated his commitment to establish a Medical College at Poonch. He further said that PDP would work for connecting twin mountainous districts of Poonch and Rajouri with rail network.

“I am aware of the problems being faced by the people of Poonch”, he said and recalled that he along with Mian Bashir and late Choudhary Mohammad Aslam had travelled most parts of Poonch district.

Yash Pal Sharma, MLC, Basharat Bukhari, MLA, Hamid Manhas, district president, Shah Mohammad Tantray, PDP candidate for Poonch-Haveli assembly segment,  Prem Sudan, Iqbal Qazmi, Shamim Dar, Haji Taj Khan, Javed Choudhary, H S Qureshi, ex-MLC, Shahzad Khan, Amar Singh, Navesh Sharma, Qazi  Lateef, Taj Hussain,  Bashir Ahmed Khaki,Capt Sohan Singh, Advocate Choudhary Javed, Haji Ghulam Mohi-ud-Din Malik, Maroof Khan, Raghubir Singh (retd Principal), Khawaz Mumtaz Ahmed and others spoke on the occasion.