Pakistan should follow Narendra Modi's advice on joint fight against poverty: Mehbooba Mufti

JAMMU: Batting strongly for good relations between India and Pakistan to restore peace along the border, Jammu and Kashmir Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti today Pakistan should follow Prime Minister Narendra Modi's advice to fight poverty together rather than "fighting with each other".

Construction of bunkers to save lives of the people should be speeded up but loss of studies of children due to firing and shelling by Pakistan cannot be compensated, she said.

"I hope that Pakistan follows Prime Minister Modi's advice seriously that fighting poverty together is the way forward rather than fighting with each other and using energies to destroy each other.


"We have to learn to live together. Constructing bunkers is not a long-term solution," Mehbooba told the Legislative Council.

The Centre had earlier this month announced that 14,000 bunkers will be constructed in the border areas of the state to save people's lives.

"I was happy when a few days ago, I watched a TV interview of Prime Minister Modi, in which he had said how better it would have been for us had the two countries -- Pakistan and India -- jointly fought against the poverty and talked about development," she said while intervening in a discussion during the question hour.

The chief minister said she hopes Pakistan follows and responds "positively" to what Modi stated.

She recalled that a ceasefire agreement was reached during the rule of then prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee and there was peace along the border for several years.

Mehbooba said it is shameful and unfortunate that bunkers need to be constructed when the world has moved far ahead. Bunkers, she said, were a temporary solution to this problem.

The chief minister also said death and destruction were not restricted to this side of border alone but to the other side as well.