Minister for Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs Chowdhary Zulfkar Ali today stressed on the need for collective efforts to channelize the energy of the youth of the state for development and growth of the state.Speaking at series of meetings with civil society at Poonch and Surankote, he emphasized on the need to engage youth for productive purposes to save them from exploitation by forces inimical to peace and development. Referring to violent protests in Kashmir valley, he pitched for taking all stakeholders into confidence especially youth of the state. “Protesting youth are our own children and there is a need to listen to them”, he said adding that this is best part of democratic system that people are allowed to raise their voice and show anger against the establishment. He said that gaps increases anger and we should not pave way for more anger and should talk to protesting people in order to restore normalcy.
Terming killings during protests as unfortunate, Zulfkar said that no governments in political system want to harm civilian people. “No political party want loss of lives and everybody condemn killings of civilians”, he said adding that the government is taking all steps to normalize situation and as soon as possible.As soon as situation returns to normalcy, government will conduct detailed enquiry into the civilian killings and take stern action against the culprits. “We will not let any culprit to go scot-free and take stern action after fixing the responsibility”, he added.Calling upon the parents to keep close watch on their children, Minister said that there is need to involve these youth in developmental activities and make them preachers of peace. He said that development is not possible in unrest. “Peace and development is interlinked and it is prior condition for development to have peaceful atmosphere”, he said.He applauded the people of Poonch and Rajouri districts for maintaining brotherhood and communal harmony in all testing times.
The meeting was attended by senior citizen, youth, lawyers, political activists, social activists and religious heads who suggested many measures for restoring peace and tranquility. The civil society assured Minister that they will try hard to maintain peace in Poonch so that the past practice of communal harmony could be maintained.Meanwhile Minister visited shrine of Buddha Amarnath at Mandi and took the stock of the arrangements made for yatries. He appreciated local Muslim population for their hospitality to Yatries and cooperation with administration in managing the affairs. He also visited Arai and took stock of road which has been damaged due to flash floods. He instructed Department to make DPR and realign the road so that people may not face problem in future.During the meetings and field visits, Deputy Commissioner Poonch Mohammad Harun Malik , Deputy Inspector General of Police Jhony Williams, Director Food, Civil Supplies and Consumer Affairs GS Chib, Senior Superintendent of Police JS Johar and all officers were present.