NA condemns Indian atrocities in IOK

ISLAMABAD: Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Kashmir Syed Fakhar Imam on Monday maintained that Kashmir was an internationally recognised dispute and not a bilateral issue between two nuclear states as being claimed by the Indian leadership.

“The United Nations Security Council’s two sessions specifically on Kashmir rejected an impression that it is a bilateral issue between the two countries,” Fakhar Imam while initiating discussion on prevailing situation in the Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) said.

The National Assembly suspended scheduled business for Monday and Tuesday to hold discussion on the vital issue in connection with the Kashmir Solidarity Day to be observed on February 05.

Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) President Sardar Masood Khan and Speaker and Deputy Speaker of the AJK Legislative Assembly were especially invited to the visitors’ gallery on the occasion. The members of the House who took part in the discussion reiterated the resolve on part of the Pakistani people that they could continue moral, diplomatic and political support for the people of IOK.

However, one of the opposition members Abdul Akbar Chitrali from the Jamaat-e-Islami (JI) called for waging Jehad against India as only solution left for Kashmir issue. He called upon Prime Minister Imran Khan to address the nation and declare Jehad against India.

“The international powers like the United States will immediately offer their mediation and solution to Kashmir issue as soon as we announce Jehad,” he said. He also quoted from verses of the Holy Quran in this connection.

Chairman Parliamentary Committee on Kashmir, Fakhar Imam said that resolution of the long standing Kashmir dispute is the dire need of the hour as two nuclear states are standing eyeball to eyeball over the issue.

He said Kashmiri people are passing through the worst phase of their lives as they are prisoned in their own homes. Fakhar Imam said Indian occupation forces have destroyed the local economy of Kashmiris and now they are targeting the innocent people for ethnic cleansing. He said that with the continuous efforts of the government, Kashmir issue has once again been internationalised, but still the issue demands more support from the international community. The chairman of Parliamentary Committee on Kashmir said Quaid-i-Azam’s vision about creation of Pakistan based on the ‘Two-Nation Theory’ has been vindicated after the illegal and unilateral action of India on August 05.

Fakhar Imam said that currently India was being run by a narrow-minded leader like Modi who is butcher of Gujarat, razed Babri Masjid and ended citizenship of millions of people living in India with a stroke of pen. The veteran politician observed that Kashmir and friendship with China perhaps are the only two international issues on which there is consensus of opinion across the board in the country. The PML-N parliamentary leader KhawajaMuhammad Asif said that Pakistan could not afford to lose case on Kashmir after making a lot of military and diplomatic investment along with sacrifices of thousands of Kashmiris.

Commenting on speech of Fakhar Imam, the PML-N leader said that chairman of parliamentary committee on Kashmir gave narrative of incidents of the last 72 years, but did not share details of incumbent government’s effort to highlight the issue at the international level. He said that the Pakistani leadership itself had weakened its case on Kashmir while attaching hopes with the Indian prime minister.

“The statement of the Prime Minister Imran Khan is matter of record that Kashmir issue will be resolved if Modi wins elections,” he said, ridiculing that Imran Khan’s Indian counterpart did not even take pain to respond to his missed calls.

Khawaja Asif also questioned as to why Imran Khan was reluctant to undertake emergency visits to various countries to convey voice of Kashmiris to the international leadership. He claimed that then prime minister Nawaz Sharif made hectic efforts on Kashmir and sent parliamentary delegations to 30 countries. “The resolution of Kashmir issue demands sincerity and not politics on blood of the Kashmiri people,” he said.

Khawaja Asif also came harsh on the Organisation for Islamic Cooperation (OIC) for its poor role saying that the organisation was now not even a debating forum, and observed that Fakhar Imam had rightly said the foreign policies of a country are directed by domestic compulsions.

Former prime minister Raja Pervaiz Ashraf while referring to statements of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto, Benazir Bhutto and incumbent leadership of PPP reaffirmed its party’s historic stand on Kashmir.

He asked the prime minister to dispatch parliamentary delegations to capitals of various countries to strengthen case of Pakistan on Kashmir.

Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan Ali Amin Gandapur recalled that the prime minister in his maiden speech on floor of the National Assembly gave a strong message on Pakistan’s stand on Kashmir.

He regretted that Pakistan wanted to host the OIC meeting on Kashmir in October last, but a sit-in staged by the opposition in Islamabad harmed the Kashmir cause, maintaining that Kashmir would continue to top the government's foreign policy.