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Kashmir : Broad outlines for solution worked out - Musharraf |
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Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf has said that progress has been made on resolving the Kashmir issue. In an interview with a private television network, Aaj, he said the broad outlines of a solution to the Kashmir issue had been worked out between India and Pakistan. But Musharraf said that he has to sort out the internal situation in Pakistan first in order to give the talks with India focussed attention.
“We have made progress on the Kashmir dispute, but we have to reach a conclusion. As I keep saying, it’s a sensitive issue. If we have to reach a conclusion then both sides have to give up. And when both give up, then in both countries there is opposition and a hue and cry. Everybody says develop a consensus first. Arrey bhai, how to develop a consensus here? It will take years to develop a consensus, and we will never be able to solve it” he said, adding that ultimately, consensus was the “view of the majority.”
He said the resolution was “moving forward on the same lines that I’ve proposed - along the lines of demilitarisation, self-governance, joint management.”
Asked if other conflict resolution models were being considered, he said “lots” of documents were being studied. In this context, he mentioned the efforts by constitutional expert A.G. Noorani.
Coalition partners differ on sensitive issues
Coalition partners in Jammu and Kashmir are voicing differences on crucial issues reportedly to keep their vote bank in tact as Assembly elections are to be held in about one and a half years. In the latest instance, Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad was isolated earlier this month when not a single Kashmir Valley based coalition partner agreed with him on the issues of granting state subject status to Hindu refugees, who migrated from Pakistan during the partition in 1947 and increasing the number of Assembly seats by 25 per cent. He had convened an all-parties meeting on May 12 to discuss these issues and solve the problems of the refugees from Pakistan.
Not only the PDP of Mufti Mohammad Sayeed oppose Azad on these issues, but Congress Agriculture Minister Hakim Yaseen and CPI (M) leader Mohammad Yousuf Tarigami also created hurdles in the matter. Tarigami took the Jammu region by surprise when he opposed the demand for citizenship rights for the refugees living in the state as unwanted for the past 60 years.
While the refugees from Pakistan, who settled in Punjab, Delhi, Haryana and other parts of the country, were compensated by the Indian Government by allotting evacuee lands and property to them, in the case of J and K, the successive Kashmir-dominated governments swept the issue of their resettlement under the carpet.
Moreover, the Kashmiri leadership apparently was not in a mood to settle the problem once and for all as they feared such a step might alter the demographic structure of the state.
Ladakh by-election : Congress faces LUTF
In the mountainous region of Ladakh, the Congress has locked horns with the Ladakh Union Territory Front (LUTF) for a seat of the Hill Development Council for which by-election will be held on May 26.
The by-election has generated much political heat in the district headquarters while the area has started coming out of snow that virtually covered it for five months.
Initially, eight candidates had filed papers for the seat, but now it is a direct contest between LUTF candidate Sonam Dorje and Congress nominee Phunchok Wangden. The seat was vacated by Thuptsan Chhewang of LUTF after he became a member of the Lok Sabha from Ladakh.
The council is controlled by LUTF that has 24 members in the 26-member House.The Congress had won only two seats during the elections in 2005.
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