- Lambasts UNSC for its failure to intervene in the issue
The speakers at the concluding session of the two-day International Seminar on Kashmir on Friday blasted the United Nations Security Council for its failure to play its role in resolving outstanding conflicts like Kashmir and Palestine, calling for new but emerging world powers like China and Russia to play their role in resolution of the Kashmir conflict.
The Seminar also called upon UN Commissioner for Human Rights in Geneva, OIC (Organization of Islamic Countries) and elected representatives in the UK and Australia to hold an independent investigation into human rights (HR) violations in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK).
Chairman Foreign Relations Committee of the National Assembly Awais Khan Leghari co-chaired the plenary on Pakistan-India relations with PM Azad Jammu and Kashmir Rajad Farooq Haider Khan at Pakistan Institute for Parliamentary Services (PIPS).
Chairman Senate Mian Raza Rabbani, PTI leader Shehryar Afridi and others also addressed at the forum organised by Young Parliamentarians Forum in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and PIPS.
Nafees Zakria, the man behind the successful event, made sure that not only top parliamentarians of the world but also scholars from across the globe attended the moot.
In his speech, Awais Leghari said India has millions of unemployed youth but it continues to spend billions of dollars on its army.
“Foreign countries use Pakistan and India as proxies. The United States is supporting India with its military assistance, including the recent sale of Howitzer missiles despite the ongoing human rights crisis in Kashmir. No international country has sought to solve the water issue with India despite Narendra Modi giving irresponsible statement, one after the other,” he added.
Awais Khan said United Nations’ resolutions were not being implemented because of vested interests.
“Media, especially from the India side, needs to be more responsible and play their role. Instead they are badmouthing Pakistan for more ratings and advertisement money. Foreign Affairs Committee of the National Assembly of Pakistan has already made recommendations on India-Pakistan relations and they need to be looked at and implemented,” he maintained.
Chairman Senate Mian Raza Rabbani said that United Nations has become a redundant institution which only listens to the tunes of Western and American imperialism. Whereas the world community has become a silent spectator to the atrocities and human rights violations in the Indian-held Kashmir.
Rabbani called for reassessing the ground realities for a fresh and a comprehensive Kashmir policy with a focus on sensitising the world about human rights violations and the right of self-determination.
He said that the rape has become a weapon of war in Kashmir and hundreds of Kashmiris have lost their eyesight due to use of pallet guns by Indian forces.
PTI young leader Shehryar Afridi said the shadows of war haunt the future of Pakistan and India collectively.
He said despite a history of wars between France and Britain, both nations transformed into a model example of bilateral relationship.
“The poor remains deprived of bread and butter while the forces are equipped with expensive ammunition to kill the civilians as a punishment for being born on the other side of the border,” he said and added that this needs to be changed.
Resolution passed
The participants from Canada, the UK, EU, and Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan carried a detailed resolution on the second day of the conference and called on India to cease forthwith all human rights violations against and stop bloodshed of the people of Jammu and Kashmir; and urged India to allow UN/Independent investigations into the human rights situation, to establish responsibility and determine appropriate punishment for the perpetrators of such crimes that are against International Humanitarian Law and international Human Rights Law.
Recalling the massacres committed in IOK by Indian occupation forces between 1990 and 2016, the resolution took note of the findings of International People Tribunal’s Report, entitled; Buried Evidence in the wake of discovery of unnamed and unmarked mass graves in IOK.
Noting India’s blatant violation of UNSC Resolutions on Kashmir, UN Charter and International Humanitarian Laws the resolution recalling the offer of the United Nations Secretary General to help resolve the long-festering problem of Jammu and Kashmir through dialogue, reminded India of the repeated pledges made at the highest level to allow them to decide their future through a plebiscite, in particular, the statements by Prime Minister Nehru in October 1947 and 1951, in which he stated that “We (India) have declared that the fate of Kashmir is ultimately to be decided by the people. That pledge we have given…not only to the people of Kashmir but to the world. We will not and cannot back out of it. We are prepared when peace and order have been established to have a referendum held under the auspices of the UN.”
It also called on India to withdraw all its troops including Armed Constabulary from Jammu and Kashmir, particularly from cities, towns and villages to enable resumption of normal life and create enabling environment for the plebiscite to be held under the auspices of the UN as enshrined in the UNSC resolutions on Kashmir.
The participants requested the United Nations to assume its responsibility of organizing the plebiscite under its supervision and urged the OIC Secretary General to compile a report on human rights violations in Indian-occupied Kashmir and urge constant monitoring of the human rights situation by the IPHRC.
It also urged UN and other relevant forums to investigate all massacres, gang-rapes, fake-encounters, forced disappearances, willful blinding using pellet guns, etc, committed by the Indian forces and Hindu terrorist organisations such as RSS, and bring the perpetrators to book.
The resolution made a resolve to remain engaged with the situation and continue to highlight the plight of the Kashmiri people at all possible forums.
