ISLAMABAD: Azad Jammu and Kashmir President Sardar Masood Ahmed Khan has said that Pakistan is an incomplete state without Jammu and Kashmir, and that Jammu and Kashmir has no identity without Pakistan.
“The Kashmir issue is alive due to Azad Jammu and Kashmir,” he said in his address during a seminar on “Kashmir Issue: Role of Pakistani Academia and Way Forward”, organised by National University of Modern Languages (NUML) Department of Governance and Public Policy here on Thursday. NUML Rector Major General (r) Ziauddin Najam, Director General Brig Muhammad Ibrahim, deans, heads of departments, faculty and students were also present on the occasion.
The AJK president said that in discussing the role of academia, one had to look at the number of research articles on the dispute that have been published and at the number of these produced in international journals. He stressed that it was the academia’s responsibility to educate the youth and to provide them with a counter-narrative against Indian propaganda.
He reminded his audience that Kashmiris had the right to self-determination and, therefore, the Kashmir issue needed to be resolved according to the Kashmiris’ will, which was in favour of Pakistan. The world would have to define the difference between an unarmed freedom fighter and a militant, he stressed.
Responding to a question, the AJK president said that Pakistan had weakened its position on the Kashmir issue by involving itself in bilateral dialogues with India and not pursuing the case in international forums. He said that Pakistan would have to revisit its Kashmir policy.
Earlier, NUML Rector Najam related a few personal experiences about the Line of Control. He urged the students to beware of Indian propaganda and believe in the state institutions of the country. He pointed out that the United Nations should play its part in resolving the dispute according to its charter.
