Pakistan Defence Minister Khawaja Asif has claimed that the Shehbaz Sharif government of Pakistan and the Congress-National Conference alliance in India are on the same page regarding restoring Article 370 in Jammu & Kashmir.
Asif claimed high chances of the Congress-National Conference alliance winning the currently underway Assembly elections in Jammu & Kashmir and forming power in the Union Territory.
Asif said this in an interview with Geo News amid Assembly elections in J&K, the first after the revocation of Article 370 in 2019 and after a decade.
"The alliance has made Article 370 a central issue in these elections," Asif said, referring to the alliance's stance on Article 370.
He said Pakistan and the alliance are in favor of restoring the special status of J&K.
"They have made it an election issue. Pakistan and the Congress-National Conference alliance are on the same page in Jammu & Kashmir to restore Article 370," he said.
The removal of Article 370 in August 2019 by the government bifurcated the former state into two Union Territories — Jammu & Kashmir, with an Assembly, and Ladakh, sans one.
The then Union Home Minister Amit Shah had said that the statehood of Jammu & Kashmir would be restored at an appropriate time.
Union Home Minister Amit Shah on Thursday underlined that the Centre will continue to work towards restoring the statehood of Jammu & Kashmir after Assembly elections as he addressed a rally in J&K's Doda.
For this, the National Conference has been more vocal on the restoration of Article 370 while Congress, which is silent on Article 370 in its party manifesto, has promised full statehood to Jammu & Kashmir.
Article 370 has always remained an emotive issue for the people of the Union Territory and has been quite consistently featured in the manifestos of the Valley-based National Conference and People's Democratic Party as well.
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