EDITORIAL: As usual, various events were held all over Pakistan to mark this year’s February 5 Kashmir Solidarity Day to show support for the people of Illegally Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJ&K) in their struggle for the right to self-determination UN Security Council resolutions promise them.
Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif travelled to Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJK) capital Muzaffarabad where, accompanied by AJK Prime Minister Sardar Tanveer Ilyas, he laid a wreath at the ‘Monument to the Martyrs’ and later addressed the AJK legislature.
In his speech, he expressed the lament that regarding IIOJ&K and occupied Palestine efforts are made to equate the oppressor and the oppressed because of their only “fault” that they are Muslims.
He cited the examples of East Timor and South Sudan, saying the world powers had facilitated plebiscites in these territories to separate them from Indonesia and the Sudan, respectively, on the basis of religion.
Indeed world powers, particularly the US, played a leading role in helping East Timor and South Sudan where Christians were fighting for independence.
Religious affinity may have been a consideration in those cases, but religion, UN resolutions, and international laws and conventions tend to take a back seat where economic or strategic interests are involved. It is worth noting that in the case of occupied Palestine a significant number of its people are Christians.
As matter of fact, two radical Palestinian organisations, the Popular Front for the Liberation of Palestine (PFLP) and Democratic Front for the Liberation of Palestine (DFLP) were founded by Christian leaders, George Habash, (killed in a 2001 Israeli rocket attack) and Nayef Hawatmeh, respectively. Hawatmeh was also one of the founders of (PFLP).
Western powers turn a blind eye to the Kashmiri people’s plight not because they are Muslims; they see benefit in courting India because of its economic heft and the accompanying political clout.
The leadership in this country needs to understand that its ability to secure its own interests and successfully advocate the Kashmir cause is closely linked to economic strength.
Unless and until Pakistan puts its own house in order and achieves economic independence it will be in no position to help the Kashmiris win freedom from the Indian occupation.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2023