26 November 2004	Friday	13 Shawwal 1425

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MUZAFFARABAD, Nov 25: Azad Kashmir Prime Minister Sardar Sikandar Hayat said on Thursday his ruling All-Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference (AJKMC) party would amend the territory's constitution to abolish a clause requiring would-be legislators to pledge their belief in accession to Pakistan before contesting elections.

He made the disclosure in reply to a question while talking to a group of visiting journalists from India and Indian-held Kashmir.

"We will abolish this restriction in the future," he said about the clause in the territory's Act 1974, or the interim constitution, that barred such candidates from election to the 48-seat Legislative Assembly who refused to make a pledge in their nomination papers about their belief in the accession of the Jammu and Kashmir state to Pakistan.

He said the AJKMC parliamentary party was already thinking on these lines and added: "We will relax this restriction." Mr Hayat said the amendment would be made after a decision by the AJKMC, which stands for the state's accession to Pakistan, but that he was sure because of his position in the party that it would be done.

Legislative Assembly speaker Sardar Siab Khalid later told Dawn that an amendment in the Azad Kashmir constitution could be passed by a simple majority in a joint session of the 48-member assembly, six elected members of the 14-member council (upper house) and Pakistan government's Kashmir Affairs minister, who is an ex-officio member of the council.

There was no immediate explanation for the necessity of the move. But it comes in the wake of recent statements of President Pervez Mushasrraf calling for considering options for a solution of the Kashmir dispute other than holding a UN-mandated plebiscite to let the people of Jammu and Kashmir decide whether they wanted to join India or Pakistan.

Mr Hayat said his party still stood by its long-standing policy to have the Himalayan state become part of Pakistan and added that he himself would prefer to live in Pakistan if "another future" was chosen for state.

He said the AJK government and the AJKMC party supported the newly-revived peace process between Pakistan and India and would like all Kashmiri parties in the Azad Kashmir and the occupied Kashmir to join the dialogue.

The prime minister, who was talking to the visiting journalists at a dinner he hosted for them, called for giving primacy to the views of Kashmiris in any settlement. "No solution will be lasting without their consent."

The group of 23 journalists, whose first ever trip to Azad Kashmir has been sponsored by the South Asian Free Media Association (Safma), also held question and answer sessions with Legislative Assembly speaker, and interactions with local media, intellectuals, divided families and lawyers.

The prime minister's political affairs adviser Raja Farooq Haider almost came to tears when he explained the plight of Kashmiri families by India-Pakistan wars over the Himalayan region at the journalists' interaction with intellectuals.