Addressing a jam packed media conference on the opening of government offices in Jammu on Monday, Omar said quite diplomacy has proved fruitful in solving many political issues. “This process has helped a lot in the settlement of political issues of Palestine and Sri Lanka in recent past”, he said.

 

The Chief Minister said that diplomacy keeps the focus on settling issues without media hype and proves prudent to carry forward the dialogue in the right direction. “The fact is that you can move ahead in the dialogue process easily, without creating media hype” he explained.

 

In a reply to another question, Omar said that though the situation in Pakistan is the country’s internal matter, yet the neighbours are also concerned for the disturbing situation across the border. “The instability in Pakistan affects the country, particularly Jammu and Kashmir”, he added.

 

When asked about the prepaid SIM cards issue, he said that that the mishandling of these cards by a small service group should not affect the large number of genuine users, adding that the state government was informed by the Centre about its intention in this regard. “We were told that something like that was being contemplated.”

 

The CM stated that he would sit with the Centre, including the Home ministry, to resolve the issue as the blanket ban on the use of prepaid SIM cards was not an answer. “Jammu and Kashmir has to be kept at par with other states of the country in respect of use of prepaid SIM cards”, he said, asserting that the service groups should be made responsible for ensuring verifications of documents, as per the requirements. “We cannot put to inconvenience a large number of genuine users for the fault of service groups.”

 

Answering another question, he said that the NC-Congress coalition government is working in close coordination and amity. “The last ten months performance of the government vindicates the fact that there has never been any dispute in decision making by the cabinet. We are carrying forward the development agenda together, to ensure speedy progress and development of the state”, he said. He also maintained that the focus of a coalition government is on the cause and concern of the people, instead of party or personal interests.