Omar decries visa denial to Pak nationals
S.P.Sharma
Tribune News Service
Jammu, May 30
National Conference (NC) chief Omar Abdullah today expressed anguish about India denying visas to Pakistanis for participating in the Kashmir- specific conference of Pugwash that had been cancelled because of this reason. The conference was to be held at Mumbai on June 3 and 4.
Abdullah, after touring the border districts of Rajouri and Poonch for 10 days, said the step did not help the peace process between the two countries.
He said when Pakistan had no objection to giving visas to the J&K-based leaders of the BJP, the Congress,the National Conference and thePDP for participating in the Islamabad conference of Pugwash last year, why should India not reciprocate in the same manner.
Abdullah said he and leader of the opposition in the state Assembly Abdul Rahim Rather were among several leaders of the PDP, the BJP and the Congress, who were given visas by Pakistan to participate in the Pugwash meeting on Kashmir. Separatist leaders were also present in the Islamabad conference. He said although denying visas to the Pakistani participants would not damage the peace process, it created doubts.
The NC chief said his tour of the interior of Rajouri and Poonch districts showed development had come to a halt due to feud between the Congress and the PDP, ruling coalition partners.
He said "work culture" supposed to have been introduced in the state by Chief Minister Ghulam Nabi Azad was no where to be seen.
He said the ministers belonging to the Congress and the PDP were not seeing eye to eye with each other. Certain projects had been inaugurated separately by the Congress and PDP ministers.
No comments:
Post a Comment