Leader of All Parties Hurriyat Conference AJK Chapter (APHC) Professor Ashraf Sarraf has termed President Zardari's speech to the joint session of AJK Legislative Assembly and Kashmir Council "positive as well historical assertion". The President has been unequivocal in asserting the support to the Kashmir freedom struggle, he added.
Talking to Radio Pakistan, he said that Zardari's speech on the occasion of Accession to Pakistan Day was the reflection of late Zulfikar Ali Bhutto's speech, which had made the Kashmiris highly sentimental. He said that he still remembers the words of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto in which he had said, "Kashmiris are our kith and kin".
He said that he also remembers the words of Mohtarata Benazir Bhutto Shaheed in which he had said, "Your blood is our blood, your pain is our pain", a reference to the agonies of Kashmiris. He also cited his meeting with Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto during her second term in government, and said that she encouraged him, saying, we will not Kashmiris in the lurc. Professor Ashraf Sarraf said what Mohtarma Benazir Bhutto had said, was translated by President Asif Ali Zardari in his January 5 speech, which means that he (the President) has reverted to her policy on Kashmir.