MUZAFFARABAD, May 20: The prime minister of Azad Kashmir called on Tuesday for the partition of disputed Kashmir along religious lines as a way to resolve its standoff with India over the territory.

Sardar Sikandar Hayat Khan said Kashmir’s Muslim-majority areas should go to Pakistan and Hindu areas accede to India.

“This solution is the closest to the 1947 partition plan under which India and Pakistan came into being,” Mr Khan told Reuters in a telephone interview.

The proposal from AJK premier comes as a surprise as his hardline All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference party usually insists on Pakistani rule of the whole of Kashmir.

His call coincides with new steps by Pakistan and India to ease tensions after an 18-month standoff.

No comment was immediately available from the Pakistani government, which has called repeatedly for a UN-sponsored referendum to decide the fate of the disputed territory.

Former Pakistan foreign minister Sartaj Aziz said the proposal had been put forward in the past. “There are many options which have been discussed at the unofficial level but the important thing is to start a dialogue,” he told Reuters.

Irshad Mehmood, Kashmir analyst at the Islamabad-based Institute of Policy Studies, said it was a workable solution supported by some Hindu nationalists.

“It is a feasible formula on which talks can be held with India. But it can only work if the Kashmiris on both sides sit together to discuss it first,” he added.

The Kashmiri leader said the division of mainly Muslim region on religious lines would be “face saving” for Pakistan and India.

“If the Muslims of Kashmir are not prepared to live with India, how could Hindus agree to live with Pakistan?” Mr Khan said.

“This solution can be face saving for India, Pakistan and Kashmiris.”—Reuters