IMRAN: TALKS AND TRADE ONLY WAYS TO RESOLVE INDIA CONFLICT

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday underlined his desire to resolve conflicts with India —including Kashmir — through dialogue and trade, and came out in support of Punjab minister Navjot Singh Sidhu by terming his visit across the border “a goodwill gesture”.

The Pakistan premier wrote on Twitter: “To move forward Pakistan and India must dialogue and resolve their conflicts incl Kashmir: The best way to alleviate poverty and uplift the people of the subcontinent is to resolve our differences through dialogue and start trading.”

Prime Minister Narendra Modi had on Saturday sent a letter to his newly elected Pakistani counterpart, conveying New Delhi’s commitment to build good neighbourly relations and pursue constructive and meaningful engagement.

Khan also said that those targeting Sidhu — also a former cricketer — were doing a “grt disservice to peace in the subcontinent — without peace our (people) cannot progress (sic)”.

CONTINUED ON P 8 NEW DELHI: President Ram Nath Kovind on Tuesday appointed Satya Pal Malik as Jammu and Kashmir’s new governor. Malik, who has been the Bihar governor since September 2017, will replace NN Vohra, and will have direct administrative control as the state has been under the Governor’s Rule since the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) withdrew support to the People’s Democratic Party-led government in June.

The move was part of a larger exercise under which three new appointments were made and some governors were reshuffled. Seven states will now have new governors. Veteran BJP leader Lalji Tandon will replace Malik in Bihar. Former Agra mayor Baby Rani Maurya has been appointed as Uttarakhand goverthe nor. Maurya will replace former Delhi police commissioner KK Paul. BJP politician Satyadev Narayan Arya will take over as Haryana governor.

Malik, a former socialist leader from western Uttar Pradesh who was with the Congress in the 1980s, joined the BJP in 2004. He is the first career politician to be named Jammu and Kashmir governor in over five decades. Karan Singh, son of the state’s last king Hari Singh, was last politician to occupy the post between 1965 and 1967.

Former generals KV Krishna Rao and SK Sinha, ex-diplomat BK Nehru, former intelligence professionals like Girish Chandra Saxena and former civil servants such as Vohra, Bhagwan Sahay, Laxmi Kant Jha and Jagmohan have served as governors in Jammu and Kashmir since the 1960s. Jagmohan later joined politics and was a minister in the Atal Bihari Vajpayee government.

Vohra, who has been the state’s governor since 2008, completed his second term on June 27. Jammu and Kashmir has been on the boil for the past couple of years owing to a spurt in local militancy and mounting deaths in security operations — the latter being an issue that was seen as a factor behind the split between the BJP and the PDP.

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