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| Mehbooba takes U-Turn on Self Rule crux | | Grilled by TV channel, PDP chief says she never suggested joint senate | | Early Times Reporter
Jammu | Apr 2
ET ExCLUSIVE
Under an obvious pressure from various political parties, the Peoples Democratic Party Mehbooba Mufti has taken a U-Turn and rolled back on his statement about the Joint Parliament of Jammu and Kashmir.
Eliciting this as a part of the Self Rule proposal of her party, Mehbooba while speaking at the Pugwash Conference at Islamabad, had proposed a Joint Senate of the Upper House of the legislature of Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan administered Kashmir. This has set off a string of reaction in the political circles.
As a leading Indian Television News Channel grilled Mehbooba on the issue in its current affairs program this evening, the PDP leader backtracked and denied having made any such statement. Interestingly, Mehbooba has actually proposed the Joint Senate at the Pugwash Conference and a copy of her address was circulated among the media in Jammu and Kashmir the same day.
The TV anchor had BJP leader Ravi Shanker Prasad in the studio and Mehbooba was online from Islamabad where she is currently touring. Mehbooba vehemently denies having said any such thing and lashed out at the BJP and also at the media for blowing her views out of proportion.
The EARLY TIMES reproduces here the operative paragraph of Mehbooba’s speech at the Pugwash Conference which proposed the Joint Senate”
“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. It is possible to think of Regional Council for the undivided state of J&K. 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. 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”.
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. |
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