NEW DELHI, MAY 8: Mohommad Shafi, Jammu and Kashmir Finance Minister, says there has been no let up in Pakistan's active support to insurgency in Kashmir, despite the euphoria and hope generated by the Lahore Declaration.``We had lot of expectations from the Declaration,''Shafi said. The joyous mood at the time of the Declaration (between Atal Behari Vajpayee and his Pakistan counterpart Nawaz Sharif) alluded to a ``tacit understanding on Kashmir'', giving hope that the National Conference Government would enjoy a reprieve from tackling violence. Shafi is a senior National Conference leader of Kashmir, hailing from the border belt of Uri.``We expected at least the killings of innocent civilians to come down; the infiltration of armed militants from Pakistan to recede and the pushing in of foreign mercenaries in Kashmir to come to a halt immediately,''he said. However, the bonhomie at the Declaration did not match Pakistan's designs on Kashmir.Shafi said although the J&K Government least expected AtalBehari Vajpayee and Nawaz Sharif to make a departure from their known stands on the Kashmir issue publically, such ``historic occasions'' are a result of a series of behind-the-scene-exercises aimed at generating a lasting goodwill.Going down memory lane, Shafi said after the historic 1972 Shimla Accord (signed between Indira Gandhi and Z A Bhutto), Pakistan's attitude towards Kashmir had changed drastically. He said besides the cessation of hostilities on the border, Pakistan had even stopped airing propagandist programmes on its media about India and Kashmir for several years.The J&K Finance Minister said the infiltration by insurgents from Pakistan was the basic cause of violence in Kashmir. He said the authorities had reports about the movement of mercenaries inside Kashmir and parts of Jammu. The insurgents continued to target the political leaders, as was evident from the recent killing of the National Conference president of the district Pulwama in southern Kashmir recently.Shafi'sobservations about the Kashmir situation follow similar views expressed by Army chief General Malik recently.Shafi said the Farooq Abdullah-led Government was faced with serious challenges due to unabated insurgency. On the one hand, the NC Government was fighting insurgency on political level, while on the other hand, people expected it to work miracles on the ravaged economy and infrastructure destroyed during the years of insurgency.Shafi, however, said the J&K Government was determined to start long-term revenue-raising plans to make the economy viable, even at the cost of earning the wrath of the public.He told The Indian Express, that the pre-1953 constitutional position likely to be demanded by the State from the Centre was negotiable and was unlikely to spark off a confrontation between the Centre and the State.
