Have full faith in SC, it'll dismiss pleas against Article 35A: Mehbooba Mufti

Srinagar: Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti on Tuesday said that she had full faith in the Supreme Court of India and hoped it will dismiss the plea challenging Article 35A of the Constitution.

“I’ve full confidence that our Supreme Court will again dismiss this plea challenging Article 35A of the Constitution in the same way as it has done in these 70 years,” she said while speaking at the Independence Day ceremonial parade at Srinagar’s Bakshi Stadium.

She said that she was quite confident that the country’s institutions would continue to deliver justice to the people of Jammu and Kashmir, “in the historic perspective of the state” as they have done in the past.

She said that when the people of the State decided to accede to the country on the basis of shared ideals of democracy and tolerance these were the institutions like Parliament which responded positively to this thinking and Jammu and Kashmir was accorded a special status within the country’s constitutional structure.

“The judiciary, fully endorsing the spirit of this relation, put its foot down and upheld the special status when the matter of its scraping was brought before it”, she said.

She added, “I hope that in future also these institutions would uphold this relation of mutual respect, cooperation and trust between the people of the state and rest of the country”.

The Chief Minister said the entire political class of Jammu and Kashmir is united in defending and preserving the special status of the state. She said that she recently met leaders of all political parties in this regard and she was happy to note that there was an overwhelming consensus on the issue among all of them.

She once again pitched for dialogue and good India-Pakistan relations saying the dialogue was the only way ahead to sort out issues.

She asked, “If peaceful negotiations can resolve all other issues in the country why can’t these help in redressing issues in Jammu and Kashmir?”

She said she was pleased to see Minister for External Affairs, Sushma Swaraj, saying that dialogue is the only way ahead in resolving border disputes with China.

She hoped Pakistan would also understand the need for peaceful engagement with India and the Central Government would also undertake a broad based outreach treating the issues within the ambit of humanity as initiated by former Prime Minister, Atal Behari Vajpayee.

She said the ‘Agenda of Alliance’ of the PDP-BJP government in the state has also declared that dialogue with all stakeholders in the state is the way forward.

Mufti said good neighbourly relations between India and Pakistan are crucial for the people of the state who bear the brunt of any bitterness in relations between the two countries.

She said that due to the recent tensions along the Line of Control, hundreds of people living close to the divide line had to migrate to safer places.

“Many of them lost their lives, the schools in these areas had to be shut and a lot of people were rendered homeless. For how long would it continue,” she asked.

In an obvious reference to the stone-pelting pastime of the Kashmiri youth and many of them picking up the gun, she said she had a word of advice for the parents.

“Please, guide your wards to take up pens instead of stones and guns. Let us ponder, how is it that the guns manufactured somewhere far off find their use in every Muslim society. Why should it happen? Why can’t our youngsters be put in productive, creative streams rather than in this confusion,” she said.

She said Jammu and Kashmir is the land of saints and sages and that it was Mir Sayyid Ali (a Muslim preacher from Hamadan in Persia popularly known as Shah-e-Hamadan in Kashmir) who brought along hundreds of artisans who trained the people here in skill development in various fields.

She said Kashmir’s patron indigenous saint Sheikh Nooruddin Wali taught and practiced brotherhood, amity and harmony to its people.

“The nature has bestowed the state with huge natural resources in the form of water, forests and scenic beauty which once harnessed optimally would not only usher in a developmental revolution in the state but also suffice the needs of country in terms of power, irrigation and other sectors,” she said.