2 min readSrinagarJul 1, 2011 08:54 PM IST
First published on: Jul 1, 2011 at 08:54 PM IST
Opposition Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti today said India and Pakistan will have to accept the distinctiveness of Jammu and Kashmir and accommodate Kashmiri nationalism on either side of the Line of Control (LoC) to find a solution to the issue.
“The first requirement of my solution would be for India and Pakistan to recognize this distinctiveness of the state (J&K) even while dealing with us through established state mechanisms that are in vogue now,” Mehbooba said in her speech at the Pugwash Conference in the German city of Berlin.
She said the Centre will have to find enough space and confidence in its nationalism to accommodate and live with Kashmiri nationalism with all its contours.
“Same will apply to Pakistan and the Pak-administered Kashmir. Similarly,within the state,Kashmir,Jammu and Ladakh have to devise an institutional framework for a modus vivendi to live and flourish as a modern welfare state,” she said.
She said all the historic routes connecting Jammu and Kashmir to other neighbouring countries including China need to be opened,which would not affect the present realities of nationality and sovereignty.
“To reopen those (trade) routes will only be in accordance with globalisation of trade and would necessarily also demand a virtual reunification of our state with the part that is administered by Pakistan,” Mehbooba said.
“Why should the large network of roads and highways in our north be exclusively dedicated to military or strategic use and not utilised for more productive purposes,” she said.
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