Peoples Democratic Party patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed on Saturday appreciated Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s initiative ‘to reach out to his Pakistan counterpart as a gigantic step to set a new agenda for reconciliation and resolution between the two countries’.
In a statement, Mufti said, “The South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation formatting of the initiative was a very constructive approach which could augur well for realising the economic potential of the South Asian region.”
Mufti said, “The initiatives taken by the prime minister on his swearing in by inviting the SAARC leaders including Pakistan prime Minister Nawaz Sharif had set the right tone for India’s leadership role in the region but the calling off the secretary level talks soon after, had blunted its potential.”
“The resumption of talks and the prime minister’s telephonic conversation with Sharif have come as a major intervention to revive the stalled peace process between our country and Pakistan,” he said.
The PDP Patron said friendship between India and Pakistan is of ‘prime importance for releasing the creative energies from decade’s long atmosphere of hostility of which Jammu and Kashmir has been the main victim’.
Mufti said Jammu and Kashmir has ‘borne the brunt of wars, militancy and a destabilized political situation as a result of the conflict between the two countries, and it is a good omen that Prime Minister has taken up the bold initiative at a crucial stage of the state’s history’.
He said, “Violence along borders since last year has resulted in casualties and it causes pain whether the victims are from our defense forces, or civilians on both sides of it.”
While welcoming the diplomatic efforts of India and Pakistan leadership for starting the fresh round of talks to solve all the long pending issues, the National Conference on Saturday said ‘time is ripe that the neighbours should end the hostility in the region’.
“As talks between the neighbours is necessary to end the stalemate, but we believe the dialogue shouldn’t be reduced to merely a tea- photo session between the leadership,” National Conference general secretary, Ali Mohammad Sagar said.
“In the past, many such dialogues have taken place, it was decided to solve all long pending issues and even the claims of having made a forward movement over many critical issues was made but a small incident in either country punctured all those dialogue efforts,” Sagar said.
“We hope that this time, with full seriousness, both the countries will take this initiative forward and to a next level.” He said people across ‘the region have a strong yearning for peace and progress which can be bought only through dialogue’.
“The hostility between India and Pakistan should be removed and both the countries should sit across the dialogue table and resolve their differences,” he said.
He said Kashmiris are ‘the worst sufferers of the hostility between India Pakistan which is continuing since many decades now and the leadership of both the countries should show empathy towards Kashmiris'.
