Islamabad: (Parliament Times) Welcoming the US President Donald Trump’s offer to mediate Kashmir conflict, the former convener of All Parties Hurriyat Conference (Pak chapter) and senior vice president Democratic Freedom Party Mehmood Ahmed Saghar has said that it was high time that New Delhi should seize the moment and reciprocate positively”.
Terming the offer as a historic opportunity to seek a peaceful settlement of the lingering Kashmir-dispute, the DFP veteran in a statement here on Tuesday said, “Since the US president’s mediation offer has opened up a new window of opportunity to restart a meaningful and result oriented dialogue on Kashmir, it is high time that New Delhi should seize the moment and take concrete steps for permanent resolution of this issue”.
Saghar said that the India and Pakistan’s troubled relationship stands witness to the fact that the two countries have miserably failed to resolve the long pending Kashmir issue bilaterally. “It is time to move beyond bilateralism, it has badly failed to reach an agreement on Kashmir”, he said adding that the decades’ long conflict would continue to fuel uncertainty and unrest in the region if left unaddressed. He said that the struggling people of Jammu and Kashmir in general and Hurriyat leadership in particular have always supported a meaningful and constructive dialogue between India and Pakistan for the resolution of Kashmir dispute. While hailing Pakistan’s readiness to President Trump’s offer to mediate Kashmir issue Saghar said that deeper engagement on the part of the US government was imperative to bring New Delhi to the negotiating table.