Apropos a news item titled "US bill on Balochistan interference in Pak affairs: Firdous" carried by Business Recorder on February 18. The response of our government has not been as strong as it should have been. The three US lawmakers who moved the resolution should be told that the people of Balochistan voted to join Pakistan at the time of independence from the British, unlike the people of Alaska, who were not consulted when the US purchased the territory from Russia.
Although no American Congressman or Senator has ever proposed handing the US (including Alaska) back to the original inhabitants, it seems strange that they're so concerned about Balochistan where only a few militants have been killed. Why don't they support self-determination for the people of Kashmir, which is internationally recognised as a disputed territory and to which India promised the right of self-determination but has instead slaughtered over 80,000 Kashmiris since 1989? It seems that in the case of non-Muslim countries like India, gross human rights violations are ignored, but where Muslim majority countries like Indonesia or Sudan are involved, there is no problem holding referendums to give independence to non-Muslims in those countries.
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