PDP's sole agenda is restoration of peace in J-K through dialogue, development: Mehbooba Mufti

Jammu, Jan 20 (PTI) PDP president Mehbooba Mufti on Tuesday said her party’s sole agenda is the restoration of peace and prosperity in Jammu and Kashmir through dialogue and development and unity of its regions.

The former chief minister criticised the National Conference and the BJP for linking her proposal for granting divisional status to the Pir Panjal and the Chenab valley to the Dixon plan and said the demand was purely administrative and aimed at ensuring balanced development and better governance of "neglected" regions.

“The PDP has only one agenda: the restoration of peace in Jammu and Kashmir with dignity and respect. Dialogue should be held with each other as was demonstrated by (PDP founder) Mufti Mohammad Sayeed during the AB Vajpayee era, when dialogue was pursued within J-K and also with Pakistan.

“During that period, cross-border roads such as the Poonch–Rawalakote and Uri–Muzaffarabad routes were also opened. We want the Army to go back to the barracks after improvement in the situation, two power projects should either be returned to J-K or adequate compensation be provided. This is our agenda—we want J-K to prosper, remain united, and for the government to reach out to the people,” Mufti told reporters here.

On National Conference president Farooq Abdullah linking her proposal for granting divisional status to Pir Panjal (Rajouri and Poonch) and Chenab valley (Ramban, Doda and Kishtwar) with the Dixon plan, Mufti said she respects him and considers him the tallest leader in J-K, but “I think he had forgotten that his father Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah was arrested for the same formula.” “It could be the agenda of the National Conference and its founder, for which he was dismissed and jailed. This can never be our party's agenda,” she said.

The Dixon plan was a formula proposed in September 1950 by Sir Owen Dixon, a UN representative and former chief justice of Australia, aimed at resolving the Jammu and Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan.

She said Pir Panjal is a backward area which is facing the major brunt of the hostilities between India and Pakistan on the borders, while Chenab valley is environmentally fragile and is facing frequent natural disasters and accidents.

“People should be empowered and democracy demands that the government reach the public. I have talked about the administration and not the Dixon plan. My father spent his whole life to keep the whole J-K united and that was the reason for his forming the government with the BJP to respect the people’s mandate,’' she said.

Mehbooba also lashed out at the BJP for linking the proposal to some hidden agenda of Pakistan and the Dixon plan and said “they have already destroyed the erstwhile state of Maharaja by carving out Ladakh (in 2019) and also seeking separate statehood for Jammu”.

“We do not want to merge Pir Panjal and Chenab valley with Kashmir and instead want separate divisional status for the two regions for the benefit of the people. BJP started implementing the Dixon plan when they redrew the borders of south Kashmir's Anantnag parliamentary constituency by including Poonch and Rajouri in it,” she said.

She also condemned the reported summoning of journalists to police stations in Srinagar and said, “I was expecting Abdullah to talk about this and also condemn it.” PTI TAS TAS MNK MNK