NC to move resolution for solution of Kashmir issue

JAMMU - The ruling National Conference (NC) in Jammu and Kashmir will move a resolution in the forthcoming budget session of the state assembly seeking the resolution of the Kashmir issue at the earliest.

The main opposition Peoples Democratic Party has held rallies and raised a pitch over the resolution of the Kashmir issue.

“The resolution of the Kashmir issue is our core issue,” PDP president Mehbooba Mufti declared at a meeting of her party workers in Jammu Feb 14.

The National Conference has been saying that though it stands for autonomy for the state, if better suggestions come, it would be willing to embrace these.

The NC had in 2000 moved and got passed in the state legislature a resolution seeking greater autonomy for the state - a position where the state had all the control over its affairs, barring in the communication, defence and external affairs.

The assembly session would commence from Feb 28 and it is expected, given the pitch raised by the political groups, that the Kashmir resolution would be one of the major talking points.

It would be for the first time that an NC member of the state assembly, Saifullah Mir, who was also a member of the house when the autonomy resolution was passed, would move a resolution seeking an early solution to the Kashmir issue by involving all the stakeholders, particularly separatists.

Saifullah Mir, one of the most articulate members in the house, has told a newspaper that his intent was to get the stakeholders on board so that an early solution to the problem could be found.

All Kashmir-centric parties have a common agenda of highlighting Kashmir as a major problem in the Indian subcontinent and want its resolution by bringing Pakistan on board.

This issue has become their prime focus, especially after last year’s summer unrest in Kashmir in which over 100 people were killed, mostly in clashes with security forces.