Srinagar: People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) on Monday said that assembly election must be held only after restoration of full statehood for Jammu and Kashmir.
In a statement issued by the alliance after its first meet after Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s all-party meeting on Jammu and Kashmir in New Delhi on June 24, the PAGD said the “struggle for undoing” the 5 August 2019 changes will “continue as long as it takes while striving to achieve this objective as early as possible.”
The PAGD met on Sunday evening under the chairmanship of Dr Farooq Abdullah at his residence in Srinagar. All the leaders of the alliance, including People’s Democratic Party (PDP) president Mehbooba Mufti, and its chief spokesperson M Y Tarigami, were present at the meeting. Justice (retd) Hasnain Masoodi, Javed Mustafa Mir and Muzaffar Ahmed Shah were also present.
“The PAGD 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,” spokesman of the conglomerate, Muhammad Yousuf Tarigami said, adding, “PAGD’s struggle for undoing these changes will continue as long as it takes while striving to achieve this objective as early as possible.”
All the members of the PAGD, he said, expressed their disappointed 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 PAGD said.
As far as restoration of statehood is concerned, the PAGD said it has been BJPs 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. 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,” he added.
