More rational ways than observing a national holiday
The 5th of February is a designated calendar holiday in the republic. The day-off is marked to express solidarity with the people of Kashmir in their struggle for their just right of self-determination. Oppressed consistently for over 64 years by the Indian occupation forces, the people of Kashmir want to exercise their inalienable right of how they want to be governed. They have to face the worst human rights violations on a regular basis. With what the Kashmiris are going through, they deserve more than a mere expression of solidarity.
Pakistan’s stake in the dispute is genuine but expressing the concern through a day-off seems a bit off the mark. A national holiday sends a wrong message, one that hints that the government is perhaps not that serious about finding ways to resolve the issue. Yes, Pakistan should stand side by side with the Kashmiris but in no way it should be at the cost of losing billions of rupees in trade, financial and economic activities. With a declared national holiday, the Kashmir cause stands to gain nothing, but the country does lose a lot.
Pakistan’s relations with India are not going to get any better if we stick on resolving all the issues in one go. A step by step approach should be undertaken to isolate the core problem of Kashmir. Once isolated it can be dealt with a number of ways, like Musharraf’s formula. No two parties that lack confidence in each other would be willing to sit down on a negotiating table and talk about finding solution to mutual problems. It’s a give and take principle that always works, and what better way for both India and Pakistan to do so other than through increasing trade, bilateral talks, people to people contact and a slow but gradual progress towards resolving all outstanding issues.
One cannot ingrain solidarity, or any other emotion for that matter, in another person, holiday or not. The only real and possible way to move forward is through actions, which the government of Pakistan has been lacking in. One wonders how much of an organised effort the government has made at international, regional and bilateral levels to pressure India into talks on Kashmir. Most of the country is even unaware of the fact that Maulana Fazalur Rehman is the chairman of National Assembly’s Standing Committee on Kashmir. If the government itself does not provide exposure to the issue at appropriate forums, even a solidarity week would do nothing but hurt the country and the Kashmir cause.