Organised by National Assembly Secretariat and Young Parliamentarians Forum under title 'Role of the UN and Major Powers in Kashmir Dispute' in connection with Right to Self-Determination Day, the seminar is bringing together the Kashmiri parliamentarians in the British and the EU parliaments, besides scholars and local parliamentarians.
"Seventy years of brutal repression and Kashmiri struggle in the face of that oppression have shown that cries of freedom cannot be stifled by sounds of bullets," said the Prime Minister, adding the UN Security Council's resolutions should be implemented and the continued sufferings of Kashmiri people must come to an end now.
Referring to the ongoing indigenous uprising in the Indian-held Kashmir (IHK), the Prime Minister saluted the spirit and determination of the Kashmiri people for continuing inalienable right to self-determination. "Our hearts beat and sink with our Kashmiri brethren," he said, adding "the martyrdom of vibrant and charismatic Kashmiri leader Burhan Muzaffar Wani has given a new turn to the Kashmiri movement."
He said that martyrdom of the young Kashmir leader has become a rallying point for the freedom loving people of the region. He regretted the Indian aggression on the innocent Kashmiri people in the wake of protests triggered by the martyrdom of Burhan Wani.
He said that supporting the Kashmiri struggle for their right to self-determination is faith of every Pakistani, adding Pakistan will continue to extend moral, political and diplomatic support to the Kashmiri people in their indigenous struggle and continue to shake the conscience of the international community for their rights.
Referring to the efforts to sensitise the international community, he said the government had sent special envoys to important world capitals to sensitise the international community about the situation in the IHK. He said that he personally raised the dispute in his address to the UN General Assembly session last year.
About the four points he had presented before the UN, the Prime Minister once again urged the world community to make all-out efforts for the realisation of the promise it had made to the Kashmiri people 70 years ago. Addressing the seminar, Adviser to the Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz said that the Jammu and Kashmir dispute is a stigma on the international conscience. He said both Kashmir and Palestine are the two longest unresolved items on the UNSC agenda.
He said the presence of a large number of Indian troops in the occupied valley is a clear manifestation of Indian policy to use state terrorism to suppress the just struggle of Kashmiri people. He also called upon India to desist from steps that alter the demography of Kashmir. He said Pakistan will continue to extend steadfast support to Kashmiri people in their just struggle to right to self-determination. "The solution of the problem lies only in a fair and transparent plebiscite under the auspices of the United Nations," he emphasised.
He said that Pakistan is utilising all possible avenues to project the cause of Kashmir and 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 said, adding the international community, and above all India, must fulfil their promises made to the people of Jammu and Kashmir for the exercise of their inalienable right to self-determination through a free and impartial plebiscite under the auspices of the United Nations.
He said that 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 pointed out that the presence of more than 700,000 occupation forces for around 12 million people in the IHK is a clear manifestation of the Indian policy to use state terrorism as a tool to suppress the just struggle of the Kashmiri people. The ratio of civilian to armed forces personnel is the highest in the world, he added.
He further said that there is unanimity, even in India, that the present wave of uprising is indigenous and cannot be brought under the convenient label of so-called "cross-border terrorism."
He stated that a deeply worrying aspect of Indian actions in IOK is the attempt to change the demography of Kashmir and convert its Muslim majority into a minority. Equally disturbing are reports of extension of the SARFAESI (Securitisation and Reconstruction of Financial Assets and Enforcement of Security Interest ) Act to IOK, whereby Indian banks can seize property of Kashmiri people and sell them to non-state subjects, he added.
"We condemn such measures as complete violation of international law and Security Council Resolutions and call upon India to desist from taking any action that could alter the demography of IOK," he added.
Aziz said that the educated and tech savvy youth of Kashmir are leading this uprising and the movement has sustained itself for five long months, despite unprecedented coercion by Indian forces.
He said that Kashmir dispute remains the core issue between India and Pakistan. Referring to PM's speech in the UNGA last September, he said that 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," he added. Speaker National Assembly Ayaz Sadiq in his address said the lingering Kashmir dispute must be resolved at the earliest to avert further instability in the whole region.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2017