Seminar on Kashmir: Qureshi urges India to accept UN resolutions on Kashmir

ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi said on Monday that Pakistan had no desire to escalate the situation and believed that the only solution of it was for India to accept resolution of Kashmir issue under the UN Council resolutions.

Speaking here at a seminar, held under the aegis of the Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs, the minister said that political voices in Pakistan had been speaking with one voice and ‘this gave us hope as well as strength’. He added that Kashmiri people were facing the worst life situation for last 22 days only for one reason; being Kashmiris, saying that India on August 5 had attempted to consolidate its occupation, which was already illegal.

He contended that the Father of the Nation had called Kashmir the jugular vein of Pakistan and ‘we will go to any limits to bring the basic human right of self-determination to the Kashmiri people and to ensure that Indian atrocities come to a halt’. The minister said that Pakistan’s intensive diplomatic efforts were focused on respecting the UN resolutions and bringing the issue to a resolution in light of those resolutions.

The minister remarked that Modi’s government was telling half-baked truths to delegitimize the freedom movement of Kashmiris and India’s actions were a grave destabilising threat to the already volatile situation of South Asia. “Pakistan has no desire to escalate the situation and we believe that the only solution of the situation is for India to accept resolving the issue under the UN Resolutions,” he emphasised.

He also lauded the Senate committee’s efforts in keeping the Kashmir issue alive at multiple forums and said that the deliberations at the seminar would be useful in mapping out the future strategy. He expressed his concern that the current regime in India might not respect the Indus Water Treaty and an example of this was witnessed recently when early warning of opening water gates was not given to Pakistan as the treaty required.

Chairman Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs Senator Mushahid Hussain Sayed noted that 22 days had passed since the illegal annexation and the spontaneous and unhindered retaliation of this annexation continues despite the brutalities being committed by Modi’s regime and this had contributed in internationalising the Kashmir issue.

He said that Pakistan expressed its gratitude to the global friends as well as intellectuals, scholars and civil society activists, who had been outspoken in supporting the Kashmiri people and Pakistan’s perspective. He said that voices from across the globe have emerged condemning this Indian step and Indian writer Arundhati Roy called this act architecture of Indian fascism.

In the policy seminar arranged on the annexation of occupied Kashmir by Modi’s India and the subsequent challenges and responses, the participants agreed on taking appropriate action to relieve the Kashmiris of Indian atrocities.

Minister for Human Rights Dr. Shireen Mazari cautioned that nuclear weapons were not just a flashpoint between the two countries but India had already started operationalizing what could become in future a nuclear war between India and Pakistan. She said that India had not just tried to review the No First Use policy and had done it numerous times earlier also and by saying this repeatedly India is just trying to make a fool out of other nations.

She observed that changing the status or demography of an occupied state come under war crimes under the Geneva Convention and India had committed a war crime by annexing IHK and had an agenda of ethnic cleansing. She said India is slowly going up the escalation ladder and there has been a qualitative shift in the type of LoC violations. She said that India was developing the Bramos missile and this was an area of concern for Pakistan because it was a supersonic technology with very little response time.

She presented a quantitative analysis as to how India’s military deployments had been engaged being Pakistan specific. She observed that Pakistan’s warnings of unintended consequences in case India initiates war need to be taken seriously by India and the international community.

Syed Fakhar Imam, Chairman Kashmir Committee of the Parliament said that Modi had exposed the true face of India and the mask of democracy and secularism had been removed. He said that Kashmir was the genesis of Pakistan and the partition plan was not complete without resolution of the Kashmir issue.

He also emphasized on the importance of the Indus Water Treaty and the future wars being driven by water sharing and management issues.

Dr. Ijaz, a renowned scholar and researcher gave a historical and contextual analysis of how the current policies of Modi’s India resemble those of Hitler’s Germany and Mussolini’s Italy. He explained why the RSS so-called intellectuals are dangerously minded and how they are trying to penetrate into the minds of ordinary Indians. He emphasised on the need of choosing our friends in this crucial time and engaging the Foreign Office efficiently.

Dr. Shamim on behalf of the Kashmiri women explained the alarming life and death situation for women and children in the Occupied Kashmir and the lack of availability of medicine and basic food items. She said that we just cannot afford more delay in providing basic provisions. She proposed sending a fact finding mission in Kashmir. She said India is not just killing the humans but it is also killing the society economically.

Dr. Faiz Naqshbandi representing the All Parties Hurriyat Conference appreciated the Committee for organising this seminar and talked about the situation in Kashmir faced by the injured and ill people as well as by people made hostage in their houses in the presence of one Indian soldier on every five Kashmiris.

The policy seminar was attended among others by Senators Dr. Shehzad Waseem, Sitara Ayaz, Abdur Rehman Malik, Javed Abbasi, Azam Swati, Waleed Iqbal, ambassadors, senior politicians, civil society activists, retired army generals, students and media persons.