TEHRAN - The former chief minister of Jammu & Kashmir and president of Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) Mehbooba Mufti claims that there is total distrust and disconnect between people of Kashmir and New Delhi.

During a talk on Kashmir: The Way Forward at a New Delhi based think tank Observer Research Foundation, Mufti referred to the 2002-05 era of joint diplomacy as the golden period of Kashmir.
Mufti, whose party parted ways with Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) in J&K, has been critical of the way BJP government in New Delhi has handled Kashmir. She expressed her displeasure about Prime Minister Narendra Modis inability in restoring peace in the troubled Kashmir valley.

She called her party's alliance with BJP in 2014 a suicide, which was done in the hope that PM Modi will pick up where former Indian prime minister and BJP veteran Atal Bihari Vajpayee left.

Mufti asked to replace the idea of Azad Kashmir with a constructive idea within the framework of the Indian Constitution. She pitched the idea of unfiying all SAARC nations in making Jammu & Kashmir an ideal model of cooperation and peace.

She further said it is important for Kashmir's future to be included in the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), arguing that Kashmiris inclusion in the corridor will be an opportunity for the state and not a security threat as perceived by the security experts and policymakers.