Mehbooba Mufti warns against tampering with special status of J-K

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president and former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti reiterated on Wednesday that any attempt taken through legal or administrative route to fiddle with the state’s special status would be unacceptable to the people of the state.

Addressing party functionaries and workers of Anantnag and Pahalgam, the PDP chief said while it was legitimate for political parties like PDP to seek people’s trust and their representation but it was not just for seeking power.

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She said the ultimate aim in Jammu and Kashmir had to be the permanent resolution of its problems which had cost the state very dearly for the last seven decades. She said mere change of governments or any attempt at disrupting the established political order would only push the state and the country into a deeper mess.

Mehbooba said the consistent stance the PDP had always been to get the state out of the political crises and address its external as well as internal dimensions. She said that whether in government or out, the party had remained at the forefront to pitch for dialogue and reconciliation between the two countries and make peace an inseparable feature of the violence-infested state.

The PDP chief also cautioned that any fiddling with the special status of Jammu and Kashmir was fraught with dangerous consequences and had the tendency to turn the state into a veritable inferno. “We strongly believe that the constitution of the country has enough space to accommodate aspirations of Jammu and Kashmir but unfortunately the atmosphere is fouled by the attempts being made to fiddle with its special status and louse of mistrust has risen out of that,” Mehbooba said, adding that any such attempt made through the legal or administrative route would be unacceptable to the people pf the state.

The PDP chief added that soon after elections were held in Pakistan, the government there made an attempt to reach out to India but unfortunately perhaps because of the 2019 Lok Sabha elections, the same couldn’t be reciprocated. “But we must look forward to acceptable and peaceful solution of Kashmir. Those at the helm must realise that there is no substitute to talks between India and Pakistan and between centre and the people of Jammu and Kashmir,” Mehbooba said.

The former CM remarked further that PDP had a consistent stand vis-a-vis dialogue which the party had reiterated every time whether in government or in opposition, and that the party believed unless there was a political progress in Kashmir, all developmental efforts would remain ineffective as long as people remained alienated and dissatisfied with the system.