President in AJK: Kashmir
holds the key to peace, says Zardari
MUZAFFARABAD: April 18, 2013
It is Kashmir
that holds the key to peace and prosperity in South Asia ,
and no durable resolution of this issue is possible without the Kashmiri people
themselves being made part of the dialogue process. This is what President Asif
Ali Zardari said while addressing a joint sitting of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir
Assembly and Council on Wednesday. President
Zardari said Pakistan
remains committed to finding a peaceful resolution for the Kashmir
dispute in accordance with the wishes of the Kashmiri people. “We will continue
to extend to our Kashmiri brethren, all political, moral and diplomatic
support. My coming here and addressing this august gathering is a manifestation
of this commitment,” he said.
On
that note, he mentioned a number of confidence building measures between Pakistan and India that have been implemented to
facilitate Kashmiris living on both sides of the Line of Control. Paying
tributes to the courage of the Kashmiri people, the President said they had
struggled to achieve their right to self-determination for over six decades. “Force
and oppression has been used against them, but their voice could not be
silenced and it never will be,” he said, adding that the ongoing protest
movement was a new chapter in the struggle of Kashmiri people. Terming the
movement indigenous and non-violent, President Zardari said unarmed Kashmiris,
including women and children, were demanding their right to self-determination.
He said international human rights organisations and even saner voices within India had been
urging their government to give up the path of violence.
Referring
to the way the former PPP-led coalition government had passed the 18th
amendment, Zardari also called upon the AJK Assembly and Council to use the
same consultative model in enacting reforms in their interim constitution. That
constitution, the president said, also needed to be amended to meet the
requirements of the day and the only way to ensure that this reform would be
durable is to ensure that all stakeholders were on board. President Zardari
congratulated the AJK Assembly for setting up a bipartisan Committee to propose
suitable amendments and assured them that the federal government would play its
role in ushering in the reforms in accordance with the law
Source:
http://tribune.com.pk/story/537138/president-in-ajk-kashmir-holds-the-key-to-peace-says-zardari/
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