PAGD leaders will attend meeting called by PM: Farooq Abdullah

PTI, Jun 22, 2021, 1:54 PM IST

Srinagar: The People’s Alliance for Gupkar Declaration (PAGD) will attend the all-party meeting convened by Prime Minister Narendra Modi in New Delhi on Thursday, said alliance chairperson Farooq Abdullah.

The announcement came after PAGD leaders met at Abdullah’s Gupkar Road residence here on Tuesday to discuss the Centre’s invitation to leaders from Jammu and Kashmir.

“We have received the invitation from the prime minister and we are going to attend (the meeting),” Abdullah, who was flanked by other leaders of the alliance, told reporters after the meeting. The PAGD chairperson said the alliance was confident it would be able to put its stand before the prime minister and Union Home Minister Amit Shah during the meeting.

“When the meeting ends, we will brief you here as well as in Delhi on what we did there, what we said and what was their response,” the former Jammu and Kashmir chief minister and National Conference president said. Asked what would be the stand of the alliance, Abdullah said, “You all know our stand and there is no need to repeat it.” “Whatever our stand was, is still there and will be there,” he added.

Various constituents of the PAGD have approached the Supreme Court with a petition asking for the restoration of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status and its statehood.

Abdullah said all those invited will attend the meeting.

“Mehbooba ji, me, Tarigami sahab and all those who have been invited from us (the alliance), will go,” he said.

As the invitation is to individual leaders of various parties “they all will go and all will speak there”, the NC leader added.

Asked about the agenda of the meeting, Abdullah said “no agenda has been pitched from their side (the Centre)”. “We can talk about any issue there,” he added. Fourteen leaders from Jammu and Kashmir have been invited to the meeting to be chaired by the prime minister to discuss the future course of action for the union territory.

The meeting is the first such exercise since the Centre announced the abrogation of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status and its bifurcation into union territories in August 2019.

The PAGD is a six-party alliance of mainstream parties which came into existence after the Centre revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370.