Some politicians and academicians in India and Pakistan have promoted the concept of a confederation between the two republics as a means to resolve their conflicts while promoting common cultural bonds, economic development and solidarity in major issues, with a ceremonial head of state and important posts held alternately by Indians and Pakistanis. Prime Minister of India Jawaharlal Nehru and Chief Minister of Jammu and Kashmir Sheikh Abdullah supported the idea. In 1972, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, the Chief Martial Law Administrator of Pakistan, explored the possibility of a Pakistan-India Confederation and asked "the Government-owned "Pakistan Times" to write in favour of India-Pakistan confederation." Some advocates of the concept perceive the two-nation theory to have been a failure, being unable to resolve conflicts between Muslims and Hindus, and that a closer bonding of the two nations would be the best possible solution and bring about a greater possibility of peace, prosperity and progress in the region. According to some advocates, such an arrangement would not only end the Kashmir conflict and bring about peace, but would forge a powerful geopolitical entity of equal standing with various global powers such as the United States, European Union, Russia and China. As a result of a confederation between Pakistan and India, M. V. Kamath said that instead of spending exorbitant amounts of money on defense, the Indo-Pakistani Confederation would have funds "available for constructive activities like health, education and economic infrastructure." Kamath appealed to the Hindu–Muslim unity demonstrated in the War of Indian Independence in 1857 as support for an Indo-Pakistani Confederation. The Indo-Pakistani Confederation, according to Kamath, would have a common currency and a common Parliament.