The Kashmir question

The Pakistan Foreign Office has said that Kashmir will remain on the UN agenda until one of the oldest territorial disputes in the world is resolved. The words come in response to an Indian statement made earlier in the week, in which it said Kashmir could be struck off the UN agenda since Kashmir had already been absorbed into India, and was no longer an international dispute. This of course, is ludicrous. India violated UN Security Council resolutions in abrogating articles which allowed Kashmir a degree of autonomy and by making attempts to change its demographic shape, so that in the future, Muslims would no longer form the majority in the area.

Pakistan has said it will be taking up the matter of Kashmir once again to the United Nations General Assembly meeting to be held later this year and to every other forum where it is possible to do so. This dispute is one that now desperately needs to be resolved. It has gone on for far too long and has caused far too much suffering notably to the people of Kashmir and to the generations that have lived there since 1947 when the matter began. Since India abrogated Article 370 of its constitution in August last year and carried out various measures after that to compel Kashmiris to submit to the will of New Delhi, Pakistan has brought up the issue of Kashmir at least three times with support from China at the UN Security Council. There has however been no real move towards discussing and resolving the problem at the forum so far. This has to be corrected. Greater international efforts also have to be made to take the matter further. The human rights abuses in Kashmir are so intense and so widespread that they cannot be allowed to continue. Pakistan must devise a suitable strategy to ensure that the dispute can indeed be resolved. And of course, this resolution must take place according to the will of the people of Kashmir divided by the Line of Control. There must be some kind of vote to determine where the future belongs. They have been stranded without any rights to their own homeland for far too many years.

The latest Indian attempts to oppress them leave them with no choice but to take matters into their own hands. If things are not taken up at international forums, we could soon see a new round of violence and unrest in Kashmir. This would only cause more death and more injury. It is Pakistan's duty then to take the matter to the highest levels it possibly can. In fact, it is not Pakistan's duty alone. It is also the duty of the rest of the world and all countries which care about human lives and human welfare or claim that they stand for the rights of people who have been oppressed in one way or the other.