By IANS,
Jammu : Strongly defending his proposal to have dual currency of India and Pakistan in Jammu and Kashmir, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) patron and former chief minister Mufti Mohammad Sayeed Wednesday said it was high time to do so.
“I said there should be use of Indian and Pakistani currency in Kashmir for it would help trading between two parts of the state and also in making it a role model for the Saarc (South Asian Association of Regional Cooperation) vision of 2002,” Mufti told a crowded press conference here.
Mufti had earlier mooted the idea Monday raking up a controversy. The Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), the Shiv Sena and other parties from the saffron brigade in Jammu had castigated Mufti for his suggestion and taken to the streets.
Even the ruling alliance partner Congress had criticised him.
Mufti, who fielded a volley of hostile questions on his proposal for the dual currency, said: “I have been misquoted as what I said was that there should be a dual currency not the one, and that it should be applicable to the two sides of Jammu and Kashmir and not one side of it.”
“It is high time that the use of dual currency should be started on experimental basis and other things would follow,” Mufti said.
Regarding Water Resources Minister and state Congress unit president Saifuddin Soz’s remarks that Mufti Sayeed’s suggestion was “highly deplorable”, the PDP leader said: “I said, what I said, others are entitled to their opinion.
“I have offered a futuristic vision, it is for the governments to take it up or decline,” Mufti asserted.