Pakistan urged to keep exerting pressure on India over Kashmir

Dr Rabia Akhtar, director of a policy research centre and a member of the prime minister’s advisory council on foreign affairs, on Thursday advised Pakistan not to let the controversial National Registry of Citizens (NRC) and the Citizenship Amendment Act (CAA) in India overshadow the Kashmir issue or put it on the back burner. She also called for making efforts to engage China in the Kashmir issue.

She expressed these views while speaking at a session, titled ‘Kashmir Today’ at a two-day conference on Kashmir, titled ‘Conference on Kashmir: The Way Forward’, organised by the Pakistan Institute of International Affairs (PIIA). The session was chaired by veteran journalist and former director of the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan IA Rehman.

Discussing the situation of Kashmir after August 5, 2019, and the political and strategic consequences of the Indian revocation of the special status of Kashmir for Pakistan, Dr Akhtar, who is the director of the Center for Security, Strategy and Policy Research, and the School of Integrated Social Sciences at the University of Lahore, said: “Pakistan needs a new strategy to counter Indian narrative to ensure that the Kashmir issue does not fade away in the noise generated by the controversial NRC and CCA in India,” said Akhtar.

She maintained that today it was Kashmir and the death of the Shimla Agreement and tomorrow the casualty would be the Indus Water Treaty. “We have to think [over the question] that will the abrogation of the IWT be a new war.”

She said Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi would rule India for further four years but the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) President Amit Shah was there to lead the party for the upcoming 10 years. “The BJP is not going to lose its strength soon because the rival Congress is not in a position to gain a majority in the Indian parliament,” she said, adding that Pakistan also should think about whether India would feel empowered due to our inaction on Kashmir and adjust its next move accordingly.

Dr Akhtar also mentioned Modi’s recent statements about defeating Pakistan in 10 days and about gaining jurisdiction on Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK). “Are we complacent or confident post-Balakot strikes? Pakistan should be clear on it and build a concrete narrative to counter the Indian narrative.”

Discussing the role of the Pakistani military, she said after August 5 last year, the Line of Control was constantly under fire and India also wanted to make Pakistan engaged in false flag operations, such as Pulwama. “In fact, India wants to keep Pakistan busy enough to derail its diplomatic game internationally,” she said.

The speaker also suggested that Pakistan continue to exert its diplomatic pressure on India and keep the international community engaged to generate pressure on India on the worsening human rights abuses in Kashmir.

Ahmer Bilal Soofi, a legal expert and former federal caretaker minister for law and justice, said India on August 5 carried a lawfare attack on Kashmir by issuing various laws that had the impact of hollowing out the Article 370 of the Indian constitution and thereby attempting to make stronger their claim of the title of territories of Kashmir.

Examining the legal maneuvering by the Indian government and its far-reaching legal implications on the law of the territory, Soofi said by exploiting its legal system, India managed to justify its claim on Kashmir – something which it could not gain through wars.

“When I assessed the document, it seems that a team of more than 20 legal experts have constantly worked from six months to a year to strategise the issue,” he said. “Unfortunately, Pakistan was in denial and its preparation of its biggest case is pathetic.”

“We are ready to sacrifice our lives for Kashmir but not ready to do some academic and legal research on the Kashmir issue. It is very unfortunate,” Soofi said.

Altaf Hussain Wani, chairman of the Kashmir Institute of International Relations, discussed the human violations in Kashmir and said the humanitarian discourse on Kashmir had long been overshadowed by the contesting political narrative and overwhelming security-centric discourse.

“Although the Indian occupation spans 73 years, the last three decades of military occupation in Kashmir normalised the de facto state of emergency in Kashmir which has a history of oppression and grave human rights abuses inflicted with complete impunity,” he said.

“In 2019, 366 people were killed in Indian-Occupied Kashmir and 80 among them were killed after the August 5 move,” he said, citing statistics released by a consortium of civil society groups in the held Kashmir. “Kashmir-based newspapers were banned for two months and only three local newspapers are allowed to operate but with an advisory that any news items criticising the Indian government’s moves on Kashmir would not be published.

He added that now the Indian government had been attempting to target the demography and culture of Kashmir. “They are allowing the outsiders to purchase immovable land in Kashmir and also replacing Urdu with the Hindi language in schools,” said Wani, who is also a member of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference – AJK chapter.