April 28, 2007
Kashmir All-party Meet Next Month
to Debate Troop Cut
Jammu
The Jammu and Kashmir government will convene an all-party meet in
Srinagar May 12 to debate demilitarization and increase in the
number of seats in the legislative assembly.
Announcing this at a press conference here Saturday, Education
Minister and state Congress committee president Peerzada Mohammad
Sayeed said all mainstream parties, representatives of the Kashmiri
Pandits and other ethnic groups would be invited to the meet.
For the time being there was no proposal to invite any separatist
group for the meet that has three major items on its agenda:
demilitarization, addition of 25 seats to the assembly and grant of
citizenship rights to refugees from Pakistan.
Sayeed said that the idea was to have an exchange of views among all
parties, and ideally to evolve a consensus so that concrete measures
could be undertaken on these crucial matters.
The Congress leader, however, said that there was no change in his
party's stand on the issue of the demilitarization in the border
state.
"We believe that the situation is not ripe for the withdrawal of
troops. It will have to wait till the situation normalizes," he
said.
"Prime Minister Manmohan Singh has already made it clear that the
troops are needed in Jammu and Kashmir for the protection of liberty
and dignity of people," he said. "We stand by our prime minister."
The Peoples Democratic Party (PDP), the main ally of Congress in the
state, is for immediate withdrawal of troops and withdrawal of
special powers to security forces. It has been chastising the local
Congress leadership, particularly Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad,
for having opposed the proposal.
The two parties also are at loggerheads over the issue of the
increase in the number of seats of the assembly. The Congress wants
an equal number of seats to be added to the Kashmir Valley and Jammu
region, which currently have 46 and 37 seats respectively in the
87-member house with four seats for the cold desert region of
Ladakh.
The PDP, on the other hand, wants a proportional increase, that is,
more seats for the Valley.
The allies have different views on the third point on the agenda
too. PDP is not in favor of granting citizenship rights to the
Punjabi-speaking refuges from Pakistan.
There are more than 150,000 people, who had crossed over to Jammu
region's plains from what was then called West Pakistan at the time
of Partition in 1947.
These people do not have the citizenship rights as Jammu and Kashmir
has a separate constitution, flag and citizenship laws thanks to its
special status under Article 370 of the Indian constitution. Only
the people born in the state have citizenship rights.
While such refugees are Indian citizens, can vote in parliamentary
elections, get central government jobs, they have no right to vote
in the assembly elections, nor are they eligible for the state
government jobs and admission to professional institutions open only
to the citizens of the state.
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