MLA Rashid tells PDP to come clean on West Pakistan refugee issue

Tribune News Service

Srinagar, January 31

Awami Ittehad Party leader and Independent MLA Engineer Rashid has asked the Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) to clear its stand on the West Pakistan refugees before entering into government formation with the BJP.

“It appears the PDP is in a hurry to sell everything,” Engineer Rashid said in a statement today.

“Before forming the government with the BJP, the PDP should clear its stand on the West Pakistan refugees. Instead of keeping Kashmiris in the dark, the PDP should make the people aware of the happenings behind the scenes,” Rashid said while commenting on the ongoing deliberations between the PDP and the BJP over government formation.

A parliamentary panel has recommended permanent residency and voting rights in Jammu and Kashmir to the refugees from West Pakistan, currently residing in the border districts of Jammu at various places. The refugees have no access to jobs and other amenities.

Meanwhile, the issue has snowballed into a controversy. Kashmir-based separatist groups and mainstream parties have threatened of an agitation if the refugees were settled in the state.

“Any step taken towards granting citizenship rights to the West Pakistan refugees would never be acceptable to the people of Kashmir,” said Rashid. He castigated the BJP, which has said the ‘refugee issue should be dealt with in a humanitarian way”.

“It is sheer political hypocrisy on part of the BJP, which never invoked humanity mantra over the killing of innocent Kashmiris over the years in the conflict,” Rashid said while asking the BJP-led government to settle the West Pakistani refugees “in other parts rather than in Jammu and Kashmir”.