Soz advocates Musharraf’s formula for Kashmir

Excelsior Correspondent

Srinagar, Aug 30: Senior Congress leader and former JKPCC president Saif-ud-Din Soz today advocated the four-point formula suggested by former Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf as a solution to Kashmir issue, saying the formula can be fine-tuned to the present needs of the stakeholders.
“While all the stakeholders will express ideas as they wish, we could also subject the ideas of reviving Delhi-Agreement within the framework of what was known at one point of time as Manmohan Singh-Musharraf four point formula for the resolution of Kashmir dispute,” the Congress leader and former Union Minister Saif-ud-Din Soz said here during a press conference.
Soz said the elements of that formula had actually been initiated during former Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and Musharraf deliberations but then in Singh’s tenure, the talks could not be taken forward due to the internal situation in Pakistan in 2007. Soz, who is also the former president of Jammu and Kashmir Pradesh Congress Committee (JKPCC), said the formula can be fine-tuned to the needs of the stakeholders.
“The discussions around this point of time can also lead to fine-tuning of the formula to the needs of the stakeholders. It could now be characterized as Narendra Modi-Nawaz Shareef formula. Fortunately, this formula does not entail defeat for the either of the parties to the dispute,” he said.
The Congress leader, apparently referring to separatists, said we must adopt democracy as our tool for achieving the necessary goal. “It does not suit our present day needs and our future requirements, in political terms, to appear to be supporting extremism, much less the violence, as an instrument for seeking solution to our political problems.
He suggested discussions among the people of Kashmir and then with the people of Jammu and Ladakh to address the issue.