Mehbooba Mufti wants India to initiate dialogue with Pakistan on Kashmir issue

Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) president and former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister Mehbooba Mufti said on Sunday only meaningful engagement between India and Pakistan and the leadership of the state could resolve decades old Kashmir conflict and accord permanent peace to the region.

Chairing a meeting of the party’s top leadership and functionaries of Kashmir and Ladakh, Mehbooba said it was high time for all political forces to come together and make strenuous efforts in unison to get Jammu and Kashmir out of the present uncertainty, bloodshed, mayhem and chaos.

Mehbooba said the world had now realised how the Kashmir issue, if allowed to remain unsettled, could push both India and Pakistan towards the brink of a nuclear war. She said it was high time both countries for their greater common good addressed the Kashmir issue on priority. To begin with, Mehbooba said, PDP’s Self Rule formula was the best option as already described by the “saner voices” of South Asia.