- PM urged to appoint a special envoy on Kashmir to build pressure on India
- Sartaj Aziz calls upon world community to play its role in resolving the issue
“The world needs to tell India that enough is enough,” the Prime Minister said at the International Parliamentary Seminar on Kashmir held here, organised by Young Parliamentarians Forum in collaboration with Ministry of Foreign Affairs.
PM urged to appoint special envoy on Kashmir
In an earlier session, European, British and Pakistani parliamentarians Thursday backed a proposal raised by PML-Zia chief Ijazul Haq asking Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to appoint a special envoy on Kashmir and set up a penal of experts to help build international pressure for concerted efforts for plebiscite in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK).
Ijazul Haq called for integrated efforts to help build up international pressure over the Indian government. He urged for a proper follow up of the seminar.
“The PM should appoint a permanent envoy on Kashmir. Moreover, international legal experts may be appointed to assist the envoy. We may also get a 20-member team of cyber experts under the special envoy to take the Kashmir cause forward on the cyberspace,” he observed. He added that Kashmir desks may be formed in every embassy/mission of the country abroad to build a diplomatic momentum over the issue of Kashmir.
In the concluding session of the day, the Prime Minister said that Kashmir cannot remain on the boil forever and India must be questioned by the international community over the continued sufferings of Kashmiri people.
Nawaz Sharif said Pakistan would continue to support the struggle of Kashmiris for their right to self-determination.
“The voices of Kashmiri people for their freedom cannot be silenced by the gunfire of Indian security forces,” he said.
He termed Kashmir ‘an integral part of Pakistan’s identity’ and said ‘our hearts beat in sync with Kashmiri brethren and we rejoice in their happiness and gloom’.
“Supporting the just struggle of Kashmiris is an article of faith for every Pakistani,” he said, adding that Pakistan would always extend moral, political and diplomatic support to Kashmiris.
The Prime Minister urged upon the international community to fulfill its 70-year-old promise with Kashmiris to implement the resolutions of United Nations Security Council that recognised the right of Kashmiris.
He said Kashmiri youth were writing a new chapter of freedom struggle following the killing of Burhan Wani.
Sartaj Aziz calls upon world community
Adviser to Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz has called upon the international community and India to fulfil promises made to the people of Jammu and Kashmir to exercise their inalienable right to self-determination through a free and impartial plebiscite under the auspices of the United Nations.
Addressing the International Parliamentary Seminar on Jammu and Kashmir here on Thursday, he said that Pakistan is utilising all possible avenues to project the cause of Kashmir and to find its lasting settlement in accordance with the wishes of the people.
“Let there be no doubt that Pakistan will continue to extend its steadfast support to the Kashmiri people,” he asserted.
Pakistan is committed to extending all moral, political and diplomatic support to the people of Jammu and Kashmir in their historic struggle for their right to self-determination, he said.
The moot was inaugurated by Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif and was attended, among others, by Speaker National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq, Minister for Defence Khawaja Asif, President of Azad Jammu and Kashmir Masood Khan and Prime Minister of AJK Raja Farooq Haider.
Sartaj Aziz stressed that the UN Security Council resolutions on Jammu and Kashmir offer the only plausible, peaceful and democratic solution to the Jammu and Kashmir dispute.
The Kashmir dispute remains the core issue between India and Pakistan, he said. Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif in the United Nations General Assembly last September had said: “Peace and normalisation between Pakistan and India cannot be achieved without a resolution of the Kashmir dispute. This is an objective evaluation, not a partisan position.”
EU, British and Pakistani MPs raise their voice
Lord Qurban Hussain, EU Parliament Member Amjad Bashir, Malik Uzair Khan MNA, Mushaal Hussain Malik and others also addressed the seminar.
Amjud Bashir, EU MP and a member of HR and Foreign Relations Committee of EU Parliament, said human rights are important pillars of the EU. He said India has failed in this regard as its forces have been committing crimes against humanity in the IOK.
He said 10,000 Kashmiri women have been deliberately raped as a weapon of war to subjugate people, just like in Bosnia.
Mushaal Hussain Malik, the human rights activist and wife of Kashmiri leader Yasin Malik, said Kashmir dispute is one of those cases of UN where the world body has failed miserably.
She said the demographic change in IOK was an abrogation of article 35-A. “Indians are changing demography and West Pakistani refugees are being given citizenship in Kashmir in violation of all laws.”
Malik Uzair Khan, MNA, said with the martyrdom of Burhan Wani, the Kashmiris have raised the flag carried by Wani.
Lord Qurban Hussain, who is Deputy Head of Chair on Kashmir in the British House of Lords, said Kashmiris have been struggling for independence even before the partition. “In 1931, several Kashmiris were hanged for raising their voice for freedom of Kashmir. There are dozens of pledges by Indian regimes for plebiscite. But every second year, India has cemented its grip on Kashmir,” he added.
