List of 100 Kashmiri businessmen sent to Pak for approval: Baig

Srinagar, July 12 (UNI) Announcing that the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road would be open for trade, Jammu and Kashmir Deputy Chief Minister Muzaffar Hussain Baig said a list of 100 businessmen intending to visit Muzaffarabad has been sent to Pakistan for approval.

He said opening of trade links across the Line of Control (LoC) would give the socio-economic profile of the subcontinent a huge facelift.

Mr Baig stressed the need for increasing the frequency of traffic on the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road and opening of the Suchetgarh-Sialkote route to trade and traffic.

He said resumption of trade on the LoC routes is on the priority of the present coalition government as a list of 100 businessmen intending to visit Muzaffarabad and other places to explore business possibilities has been sent to Pakistan.

He said Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad and former Chief Minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed have pursued the case of resumption of trade and traffic on the LoC with all seriousness.

Mr Baig said Mr Sayeed had a larger vision on prosperity and economic upliftment of people of the Indian subcontinent and his efforts and dynamism helped in convincing the then NDA government for a movement forward on the issue.

He said though the coalition government, during its almost four years in office, has achieved a turnaround in development the state, Mr Sayeed put the political agenda on the centrestage of the Indian subcontinent and even changed the ''political idiom of Jammu and Kashmir.'' The Deputy Chief Minister said the Common Minimum Programme (CMP), which is a combination of political agenda and developmental initiatives, is the bible of governance for the coalition government. He said both PDP and Congress are committed to the implementation of CMP.

He said the healing touch policy of the coalition government provided the much needed relief to the people which gave new hope and led to a new beginning.

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