The chairman of parliamentary committee on Kashmir, Fazl-ur-Rehman, has said that situation in Afghanistan has impacted the Kashmir issue and, in changed circumstances, it has became a big challenge for all stakeholders in Pakistan to highlight the subject in an effective manner at the international stage.
He was speaking at a reception hosted by Pakistan's High Commissioner in UK, Wajid Shamsul Hasan, at the High Commission here on Friday evening. Fazl said that the post-9/11 events have posed new challenges to projecting the Kashmir issue and, due to Pakistan's own pressing problems in relation to war on terrorism and extremism, the matter has been pushed back.
He said that the special committee on Kashmir has been endeavouring to put back the Kashmir as a top priority foreign policy issue. In this regard, he said, members of the committee had been visiting foreign capitals to highlight the problem and seek international attention. He said that Kashmir must remain focal point of Pakistan's foreign policy because the subject is linked to both regional and global peace.
The chairman of Kashmir committee told the gathering that during the last six decades a number of rounds of talks were held between Pakistan and India on Kashmir, but all ended without any progress because of intransigence of India. And, for the past two years, these composite dialogues have completely stalled, he added.
He stressed that Kashmir is not a territorial problem as it is related to human rights violation involving around 14 million Kashmiris. Fazl appealed to the world community to pressure India to withdraw forces from the Occupied Kashmir, stop state terrorism, and allow human rights organisations to visit the Valley, and resolve the Kashmir issue.
"The international community should monitor the Indo-Pak dialogue and compel India to be serious in making the dialogue meaningful and result-oriented," he said. He said the mass movement continuing since 2008 has exposed Indian propaganda that the upsurge in the Occupied Kashmir is a terrorist movement sponsored from abroad.
British MP from Birmingham, Yasmin Qureshi, also spoke on the occasion and pledged to raise the issue in the House of Commons. She said that the people of Kashmir should decide their own destiny, and added that there could be no stability or tranquillity in the region without first solving this issue. The newly-appointed member of House of Lords, Lord Qurban Hussain, said that the Kashmir issue has always been dear to him since his roots originate from Kashmir. "It will be my endeavour to get India to agree to bring an end to human rights violations and release all prisoners," he said, adding that he would strive to serve the cause of Kashmir as long as he would remain a member of British Parliament.
MNA Aamir Magsi, a member of the delegation, and Mahmood Riaz, Azad Kashmir Minister for Information, also spoke on the occasion and stressed the need to create more awareness about the Kashmir issue, both at home and abroad. Earlier, the High Commissioner in his opening remarks said the human right violations perpetrated by the Indian security forces in the IOK have evoked world-wide condemnation. He said the world leaders, governments, organisations, intellectuals and civil society have condemned the state terrorism in the Indian held Kashmir.
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