‘Pakistan has nothing to hide in Azad Kashmir’

• Dr Faisal says Pakistan has nothing to hide in Kashmir

ISLAMABAD: Ministry of Foreign Affairs spokesperson Dr Mohammad Faisal has said that delegations from the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the European Union have been visiting Azad Jammu Kashmir, as “we have nothing to hide and we are open.”

“It is a high time for international community to fulfill its promise and urge India to end its occupation,” he said while addressing an event – A plebiscite and an international investigation on Kashmir: A test for India’s role as a responsible UN member state, held here by the Youth Forum for Kashmir (YFK), an international lobby group.

“We condemn all black laws, including the Armed Forces Special Powers Acts (AFSPA), excessive use of force, use of rape as a tool of war, and suspension of communication and internet in (Indian-held) Kashmir,” Dr Faisal said. Ambassador Zamir Akram, Pakistan’s former permanent representative to the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) in Geneva, said that the UN mostly ignored Kashmir since 1957 but the Office of the Human Rights Commissioner found the courage to write such reports.

“I’m surprised and happy,” he said and expressed that it (UNHRC) calls upon India to fully respect the right to self-determination of Kashmiri people. He asked the government to be more proactive as they have this document in hand. Last two governments placed Kashmir on back burner, he said. Referring to former Kashmir Committee chairman Fazlur Rahman, he said that unsuited people were sent as envoy in the world capitals.

“We can’t afford to let this chance slip out of our hands. Why should Pakistan deny the excess to the UN team? We should not put ourselves with India,” he said. Altaf Hussain Wani, head of the Kashmir delegation to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, emphasized that more than 13 types of HR violations were mentioned in the report. He said that India denied the report and its media started propaganda, more they tried to malign the report, and the more people got interested.

He was of the view that the humanitarian intervention in Kashmir was here in the form of this report and now “we will see political intervention very soon.” YFK Executive Director Ahmed Quraishi expressed that since 1957 till recent time, they had same vocabulary, same terms and same speeches. But today, “something had changed and now we have report from UN. Pakistan is assessing what to do next, this report has changed things intentionally. But there is a confusion in India that how to move forward,” he said.

Hurriyat Conference Convener Syed Faiz Naqshbandi said that they need to highlight what was the difference between Pakistan and India which is even mentioned in the report. “There are no pellet guns, no HR violations in Azad Kashmir. Pakistan has time and again asked to deploy UN teams on the Line of Control. Pakistan should allow fact-finding missions to Azad Kashmir to expose Indian propaganda,” he said. High-level government officials, diplomats, media, decision makers and policy students attended the session.