LAHORE: Rejecting Prime Minister Imran Khan's statement regarding holding a referendum in Kashmir to decide whether the Kashmiris wanted to live with Pakistan or as an independent nation, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) President Shehbaz Sharif said on Saturday that casual remarks by PM in a political gathering are damaging for the Kashmir cause.
Shehbaz said, "Imran Khan Niazi is deviating from Pakistan's historical and constitutional position by proposing a referendum; the entire nation rejects anything other than Pakistan's historic position on the Jammu and Kashmir dispute and UN Security Council resolutions," Shehbaz said in a statement responding to Imran Khan's statement given during AJK rallies.
The PML-N president said that Imran Niazi's statement has proved the concerns that have already come before the nation with the Indian measures of August 5, 2019. "The Jammu and Kashmir dispute will be decided according to a transparent and independent plebiscite held under the auspices of the United Nations and this is the position of the people of Pakistan and Kashmir," he said.
Shehbaz maintained that imposing a solution on Kashmiris without their consent and consultation tantamount to helping India and betraying the Kashmir cause.
Moreover, Shehbaz Sharif slammed Federal Minister for Kashmir Affairs Ali Amin Gandapur for using shameful language against PML-N's Maryam Nawaz in an election rally at Azad Jammu and Kashmir's Kotli.
"Disgusted by the shameful language Ali Amin Gandapur has used against Maryam Nawaz. His words are not only violent but also deeply misogynist. Just imagine that people with this mindset have been given the responsibility to govern a country of 220m people," Shehbaz said in a tweet on Saturday.
Moreover, PML-N MPA Hina Pervaiz Butt has moved a resolution in the Punjab Assembly asking Ali Amin Gandapur to apologize and also resign over his objectionable remarks against Maryam Nawaz.
The resolution submitted by Hina Pervaiz Butt says that the words used by the federal minister against Maryam were simply intolerable. "After the character assassination of political opponents, jailing them on one pretext or the other, now the Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) government ministers have stooped down so low that they are getting personal in their speeches. Gandapur's statement is creating resentment in the PML-N's youth. Therefore, not only the minister should offer his apology to PML-N vice president but Prime Minister Imran Khan should also remove him from his post immediately," the resolution said.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2021