Ghulam Nabi Azad snubs Gupkar Alliance over talks with Pakistan; 'Centre to decide'

Snubbing the Gupkar Alliance who has been pushing for talks with Pakistan, senior Congress leader Ghulam Nabi Azad said it is for the Central government to decide on talks with the Imran Khan administration.

"We should leave it to the government because I'm nobody I don't have to talk. I don't know what is the gravity of the situation. Even in the past, we had discontinued talks in our government but as and when the situation improved between the two countries and the atmosphere was a little clearer the talks were started. It is the government of India to decide this," Nabi said.

Gupkar Alliance on several occasions has demanded talks with Pakistan to end terrorism in the valley saying that 'friendship' holds the key to development in the region. In November too, National Conference President Farooq Abdullah batted for talks with Pakistan amid the targeted killing in J&K.

Azad reiterates demand for J&K statehood, then assembly polls

On Saturday, Ghulam Nabi Azad reiterated the demand that there should be the restoration of statehood for Jammu and Kashmir before the assembly election in the union territory. 

"From day one, when all-party meeting was held, we have demanded statehood and elections. The government had agreed to both. We had kept a condition that first elections be held and then delimitation be done. That did not happen. We still want that first statehood to be given and then elections be held," the former CM said while speaking to media on the sidelines of an event in Udhampur.

Union Home Minister Amit Shah has reiterated that statehood will be restored in Jammu and Kashmir after the delimitation of constituencies and assembly polls.

Meanwhile, the J&K Delimitation Commission has proposed increased assembly constituencies from the present 43 seats to 49 and in Kashmir region from 46 to 47. It has also proposed to reserve 16 seats for ST and SC in the Union Territory.

Reacting to the commission's recommendation, Azad has stated that seats for Scheduled Caste should be evenly distributed between Jammu and Kashmir regions.