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| PDP proposes joint J&K Parliament | | Mehbooba tells Pugwash: Self Rule is about blurring LoC | | Early Times Reporter
Jammu | Mar 30
Picking up a thread from Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s ‘Line of Peace’ proposal, the Peoples Democratic Party president Mehbooba Mufti today suggested blurring of the dividing line and constituting a joint parliament for both parts of Jammu and Kashmir.
Sounding far from reality, Mehbooba told the Pugwash Conference in Islamabad, “Growing awareness of the complexity of the notion of representation and the multifunctional nature of modern legislatures may be affording incipient new rationales for a unique system to be set up”. Mehbooba said that such an arrangement is contained in the self rule proposal of the Peoples Democratic Party.
Text of her speech released from Islamabad said, “It is possible to think of Regional Council for the undivided state of Jammu and Kashmir”. The Upper House of the State Assembly can be redesigned in the form of a regional Senate with members from J&K as well as Pakistan Administered Kashmir (PAK). At present our state assembly holds 20 seats for representatives from PAK. These could be given up and held as J&K’s representation in the Upper House, which will function as the Council for Greater Jammu and Kashmir, said Mehbooba.
She felt that this will serve as a major cross-border institution that will ensure long-term coordination of matters and interest relating to the whole State. Moreover, such an institutional structure will provide a framework, within which certain matters between the two parts of the State and their respective mainlands, which need to be sorted out to infuse in people a sense of empowerment and a feeling of belonging. This will require devising an improved constitutional, political and economic relationship between the two parts of the State and their respective mainlands with a sign off from the international community. “this is the crux of Self-Rule”, explained Mehbooba.
PDP is trying to contextualize the issue at various levels and draw the contours of a process for building sustainable peace in the State and the region. The essence of PDP’s approach lies in trying to suggest a creative framework for resolution of the issues.
Our party recognizes that we are living through a period where definitions of cultures, societies, sovereignty, and nationality are changing very rapidly and radically. All these issues have gone through a large number of transformations and sometimes, dramatic shifts. The world has undergone a change and we have to be a part of that changed system.
Last but not the least, said Mehbooba, “I am sure next time we would like to share this platform with the representatives from all the separatist and militant groups especially Hizbul Mujahideen to evolve a broader consensus for the peaceful resolution of the problem that has brought catastrophic disaster to the people of Jammu and Kashmir and marred the region’s economic growth”. |
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