Statehood first, elections later: PAGD

Srinagar, Jul 5: The People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) has expressed disappointment at the outcome of the All Party Meeting and has decided to reach out to other political parties in J&K with a view to take a common position on restoration of Statehood ahead of assembly elections.
The conglomerate also stated that there was no joint decision over meeting the Delimitation Commission panel, visiting Jammu and Kashmir for four days from tomorrow (July 06).
The PAGD met on Sunday evening under the chairmanship of Dr Farooq Abdullah at his residence in Srinagar. The meeting attended by vice-chairperson Mehbooba Mufti, M.Y.Tarigami, Justice (retd) Hasnain Masoodi, Javed Mustafa Mir and Muzaffar Ahmed Shah, was called to discuss the recent meeting chaired by the Prime Minister in Delhi on 24th June.
Addressing a presser, PAGD spokesman Muhammad Yousuf Tarigami as per the news agency—Kashmir News Observer (KNO) said that the PAGD has not taken any joint decision vis-à-vis meeting the Delimitation panel, which is visiting J&K for four days from July 06.
He added that the political parties, part of the PAGD will take decision about meeting the panel separately.
Pertinently, the Delimitation Commission has planned a four-day visit to J&K during which it will interact with all the District Election Officers (DEOs) of J&K.
Meanwhile, PAGD in a statement reiterated its commitment to fight together to reverse the unconstitutional and unacceptable changes foisted on the people of J&K on 5th August 2019 using all constitutional, legal and political means at its disposal.
PAGD’s struggle for undoing these changes will continue as long as it takes while striving to achieve this objective as early as possible, spokesman said.
All the members of the PAGD expressed their disappointment at the outcome of the Delhi meeting especially at the absence of any substantial Confidence Building Measures such as releasing political and other prisoners from jails and taking concrete steps to end the siege and atmosphere of suppression that has choked J&K since 2019.
“This would have initiated the much needed process of reaching out to the people of J&K who are the biggest stakeholders and sufferers of the J&K problem,” the statement said.
“As far as restoration of statehood is concerned, it has been BJP’s commitment on the floor of the Parliament and they must honour their word. So any assembly election must be held only after restoration of full statehood for J&K,” it added.
“To this end, the PAGD has decided to reach out to other political parties in J&K with a view to take a common position on the issue,” the statement said.