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| India-Pakistan |
| PDP calls for 'Greater Jammu and Kashmir' |
| 2008-10-26 |
| Unveiling its 'self-rule' document ahead of the upcoming state election, the People's Democratic Party (PDP) on Saturday called for a 'Greater Jammu and Kashmir' and a common currency. Though the party, led by former chief minister Mufti Muhammad Sayeed, would formally announce its participation in election on Sunday, it released the 'self-rule' document in Srinagar as its poll agenda. The PDP had earlier demanded suspending the elections until April or May 2009. The self-rule that the party proposed is a trans-border concept, envisaging constitution of a cross-border institution or a regional council of Greater Jammu and Kashmir (GJAK), which will replace the existing Upper House of Indian-held Kashmir (IHK). Mufti envisages that the regional council will comprise members from both IHK and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK). The document also envisages a phased economic integration of IHK and AJK that transcends borders, and electing the head of GJAK from the two regions on a rotation basis. This would provide "an equal and equitable sense and feeling of empowerment" to the people of both regions. Dual currency: The party also proposed using 'dual currency' that would accept both Indian and Pakistani rupees as legitimate legal tenders. It also proposed that both the Indian and Pakistani rupees should be the medium of exchange in GJAK. The PDP makes it clear while presenting its paper that it is offering only an act of home and "not presenting a solution nor pretending to have one" but an indicative direction for resolution of the six-decade long problem and tension in the region. "The Kashmir issue cannot be resolved on the basis of exclusively intra-state level initiatives, as it requires a combination of intra-state measures with inter-state and supra-state measures," the document stressed, pointing out that the concept of self-rule is the only way to eliminate the sources of ethno-territorial conflicts. A new political superstructure of GJAK regional council will integrate the region and also empower all sub-regions. The council, which will replace the IHK Upper House, will be like a regional senate. Presently, the IHK state assembly holds 20 seats for representatives from across the Line of Control (LoC), but these will be given up and replaced by the same number of seats in the regional council, the PDP document said. It said such an institutional structure would provide a framework within which certain matters between the two parts of the state will be sorted out to infuse a sense of empowerment in the people. A critical element of self-rule is the economic integration across the LoC, which starts with a declaration of intention and an agreement for a common economic space, harmonised economic legislations and synergised regulations. The document says the process of economic integration of IHK and AJK can start with the easiest form of integration, a Preferential Trade Agreement, in which India and Pakistan would offer tariff reductions, or eliminations, confined to the geographical boundaries of GJAK and restrict it to some product categories. "Stage II would be to make GJAK a regional free trade area, with no tariffs or barriers within GJAK, while maintaining their own external tariff on imports from the rest of the world, including India and Pakistan. GJAK will set a common external tariff on imports from India and Pakistan," the document said. |
| Posted by:Fred |