Peoples Conference releases vision document on Kashmir issue

Srinagar, Jan 6 (UNI) People Conference (Sajjad) today released about 300-page vision document suggesting ways and means how to resolve the Jammu and Kashmir issue peacefully.

Releasing the vision document, Peoples Conference (PC) chairman Sajjad Gani Lone claimed that it was a roadmap to resolve the conflict, which has claimed the lives of more than one lakh people.

However, he said, the document is by no means exhaustive and is rather put forth to introduce new ideas, critical thinking, a set of clear criteria and an exhaustive agenda for public discourse in the entire Jammu and Kashmir, which exists before 1947.

The vision document is a comprehensive analysis and a concrete articulation of a Jammu and Kashmir perspective which needs to be understood and debated in all its details, he said, adding that given its meticulous nature, it was hard to reduce it to a short summary.

It is our belief that the model and the new state of affairs would seeks to bring about the '' Achievable Nationhood'' for the people of Jammu and Kashmir.

Mr Sajad said the achievable nationhood envisages the creation of five entirely new overlapping relationships within two power-sharing structures -- the relationship between this part of Jammu and Kashmir and India, between Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and Pakistan, between both the Kashmirs, between Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan, and between Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and India.

Achievable nationhood exactly defines these relationships in terms of the exercise of powers, rights and privileges, he said.

He said achievable nationhood is the net result of these five relationships which are interlocking, interdependent, irreversible, and complimentary. The model is incomplete without all five relationships being realised.

''Achievable Nationhood'' achieves unification of the two parts of Jammu and Kashmir through an elaborate arrangement of sectoral overlaps and the creation of a wide range of joint institutions.

Furthermore, he said, ''Achievable Nationhood'' propounds the creation of a single Jammu and Kashmir Economic Union, which would result in a boundary-less and prosperous Jammu and Kashmir.

Mr Sajjad said he will send the copies of the document to Prime Minister Manmohan Singh and Pakistan President General Pervez Musharraf.

The document was released a year after PC leadership met Dr Singh in New Delhi on the Kashmir issue. However, the PC stayed away from the five working committees, set up to address different issues relating to Kashmir.

The document in English traces the historical perspective of the Kashmir issue, including a reference to the pre-partition freedom struggle, the events in 1947, the United Nations resolutions passed on Kashmir and other happenings.

UNI