Expand scope of trans-LoC trade, travel: Mufti

PDP patron Mufti Mohammad Sayeed today said the scope of trans-LoC trade and travel should be expanded and made hassle-free to make more meaningful the 2005 initiative of reopening the Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road.

Trade and travel facility should be extended beyond the divided families to common citizens of the two sides of the LoC and double currency system along with a credible banking back-up made available to traders, the former chief minister said.

"To make the historic 2005 initiative (reopening of Srinagar-Muzaffarabad road) more meaningful, it was necessary to remove hassles in the movement of goods and passengers."

All traditional trade routes as existed in the pre-independence era should be reopened to help harness the border state's potential as a business hub, he told a party workers' convention at Manasbal-Sonawari, 45 kms from here.

On the Kashmir issue, he said a multidimensional approach as envisaged in party's self rule document alone could save the state from decades-old miseries.

"It's not a problem that could be solved by action on a single front." It had to be addressed at political, diplomatic, constitutional and economic levels.