Excelsior Correspondent
SRINAGAR, Apr 15: Batting for friendly relations between India and Pakistan, Union Minister Farooq Abdullah today said bilateral cooperation between the two countries is imperative for lasting peace and sustained development in Jammu and Kashmir and in the sub-continent.
“Friendly relations and bilateral cooperation between India and Pakistan is a must for lasting peace and sustained development in the sub-continent and especially in J&K,” Abdullah, who is seeking re-election from Srinagar Parliamentary constituency, said addressing a public meeting at Khan Sahib in Budgam district.
Praising his Chief Minister son, the National Conference president said it was Omar Abdullah who, in the presence of Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and UPA chairperson Sonia Gandhi unequivocally and unambiguously said that Kashmir issue was political in nature and not an economic or governance-related problem and hence, needed a political initiative.
“Our party founder Sher-e-Kashmir Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah was one of the biggest advocates of Indo-Pak friendship and it was Sheikh Sahib who envisioned the opening of the Srinagar- Muzaffarabad Road and permanent economic and cultural exchanges between two side of the Line of Control,” he said.
The Minister said various important Confidence Building Measures (CBMs) including the opening of Srinagar-Muzaffarabad Road were fruits of sustained diplomatic engagement between New Delhi and Islamabad.
He also hit out at former Chief Minister and PDP patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed for taking credit for the implementation of these historic steps taken by NC to bring people of the two sides closer to each other.
“Mufti Sayeed has always invested most of his time and energy in claiming credit for the achievements and work of other people and this is something that PDP has now adopted as its official policy. While political marketing of actual achievements is a common part of politics now, marketing of non-existent work and lies is something that PDP has achieved a specialisation in,” Abdullah said.
The Minister said NC had advocated the partial revocation of the Armed Forces Special Powers Act (AFSPA) while in the Government, unlike PDP leaders who chose to stay silent about these issues when they were in power but enacted theatrics while in the opposition in the State.
Farooq today said that controversial books coming out in the time of elections were aimed at “spoiling” the chances of the UPA in the ongoing Lok Sabha polls.
“The aim of these books (coming out now) is that it will create an upheaval and spoil the hopes of UPA (in the elections). That is the objective behind these books,” Abdullah told reporters after paying obeisance at the shrine of Sheikh Hamza Makhdoom in old city.
Books written by former coal secretary P C Parakh and Prime Minister Manmohan Singh’s former media advisor Sanjaya Baru have hogged headlines lately due to their controversial revelations.
Abdullah alleged the authors of these books wanted to make some quick bucks as well.
“They also hope to earn some money,” he said.
Speaking on the occasion, Senior National Conference leader and Minister for Finance and Ladakh Affairs Abdul Rahim Rather said that it was PDP that extended the lease on the Toisa Maidan Artillery Range in 2004 when Mufti Mohammad Sayeed was the Chief Minister. “It is for this precise reason that PDP has chosen to talk in hushed, apologetic voices about this issue rather than categorically opposing the extension of the lease”, he added. Rather said the Government, through the special committee constituted for this purpose, had offered alternatives to the Security Forces and it would be ensured that the lease for the range is not extended.
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