Islamabad January 14, 2016: Chairman Pakistan People’s Party Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has said that the people of Kashmir are a key to a final settlement of the Kashmir dispute and that the Pakistan Peoples will continue to support them in their just struggle.

He said this while talking to a delegation of the Party leaders from AJK who called n him in Zardari House in Islamabad today.

The delegation included President AJK Sardar Muhammad Yaqub Khan, Prime Minister AJK Chaudhry Abdul Majid, Speaker and deputy Speaker of AJK Assembly, cabinet ministers and PPP AJK office bearers.

Ms Faryal Talpur and were also present on the occasion.

Resolution of the Kashmir dispute in accordance with the aspirations of the people of Kashmir is also central to peace in the region, he said.

The PPP wishes to take South Asia on to the path of peace and prosperity with a peaceful resolution of the Kashmir dispute with respect and honour. This path lies through confidence building, conflict management and creation of a trading bloc of nations to improve the living conditions of all people of South Asia, he said.

He recalled that the Party under the leadership of Shaheed Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto proposed soft borders as far back as 1999. Earlier on, the PPP introduced the South Asian Preferential Tariff Agreement as well as the concept of groups of people, like Parliamentarians and Judges, travelling in the SAARC countries without visas, he said.

However the fundamental rights of the people of Kashmir cannot be sidelined or ignored. There can be no greater fundamental right than the right to franchise of a people, he said.

Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said that the Party welcomed the recent overtures between India and Pakistan to resume the dialogue process and expressed the hope that the process will continue un-interrupted and will not be allowed to be derailed by the recent attack on an airbase in India by militants.

The Party has noted the promise made by the government of Pakistan to investigate and pursue to the logical conclusion any evidence of Pakistanis involvement in the airbase attack. The Party has also noted the claims of the government that the offices of the said banned outfit “are being traced and sealed” and its members detained.

It is surprising that the offices of an organization that was banned over a decade ago are still ‘being traced and sealed’. Regardless of this, however, the Party hopes and demands that the period of ambivalence must be left behind in fighting the terrorists and political ambitions of the terrorists defeated with force and decisiveness.