Welcoming the visit of the All Party Delegation to J&K, the Chief Minister, Ms Mehbooba Mufti today called for creating an institutionalised mechanism for dialogue and resolution of Kashmir issue.Interacting with the visiting All Party Delegation at SKICC here this afternoon, the Chief Minister stressed the need for creating a new basis of legitimacy for the peace and resolution process to take shape. “The need of the hour is to revive the reconciliation and resolution process through an institutionalized mechanism involving all the stakeholders,” she said and added that the challenge before the leadership of the State and the country is to insulate the process from the setbacks that have derailed it in the past.“All of us are deeply concerned about the painful situation existing in Kashmir and a credible and meaningful political dialogue and resolution process has to be initiated to end the stalemate,” Ms Mehbooba said and added that it is a welcome step that cutting across the party lines and political positions, the country’s political leadership has reached out to the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
The Chief Minister said that all the mainstream political parties and separatist leadership in the State voice the urges and aspirations of the people and seek a lasting resolution of the problems confronting Jammu and Kashmir. “In the ‘Agenda of Alliance’, which is the basis of our government formation with our alliance partners, BJP, it has been made clear that the State Government will create conditions to facilitate resolution of all issues and will help initiate a sustained and meaningful dialogue with all the stakeholders, including all political groups in J&K irrespective of their ideological views and predilections to build a broad based consensus on resolution of all outstanding issues of J&K,” she said.Ms Mehbooba expressed the hope that the visit of the All Party Delegation will be the first step towards putting in place an institutionalized mechanism for the lasting resolution of the issue to make peace and stability a reality in the State and the region.Earlier, the State’s Finance Minister, Dr Haseeb Drabu gave a detailed presentation regarding the political, economic and developmental challenges confronting J&K and a possible roadmap on how to pull the State out of the morass.The State Government delegation which was headed by the Chief Minister also included Deputy Chief Minister, Dr Nirmal Singh, Minister for R&B, A R Veeri and Minister for Social Welfare, Sajad Gani Lone.