Kashmir issue eclipsed by Afghan situation: Fazl

Sunday, November 28, 2010

* Parliamentary committee on Kashmir chairman says will endeavor to put Kashmir back as top priority foreign policy issue

LONDON: Parliamentary Committee on Kashmir Chairman Maulana Fazlur Rehman said that the situation in Afghanistan impacted the Kashmir issue. In the changed circumstances, it has become a big challenge for all stakeholders in Pakistan to highlight the issue in an effective manner at the international stage, he added.

Rehman was speaking at a reception hosted in his honor by Pakistan’s High Commissioner to the UK Wajid Shamsul Hasan at the High Commission on Friday evening.

He said that post 9/11 events had posed new challenges in projecting the Kashmir issue and due to Pakistan’s own pressing problems in relations to war on terrorism and extremism, the matter had been pushed back, adding that the Parliamentary Committee on Kashmir had been endeavoring to put Kashmir back as a top priority foreign policy issue “In this regard, special committee members had been visiting foreign capitals to highlight the problem and seek international attention.” Rehman said he was of the opinion that Kashmir must remain the focal point of Pakistan’s foreign policy because the subject was linked to both regional and global peace.

The Kashmir committee chairman informed the gathering that during the last six decades, several rounds of talks had been held between Pakistan and India on Kashmir, but all ended without any progress because of the intransigency of India. “And for the past two years, these composite dialogues have completely stalled,” he added.

He stressed that Kashmir was not a territorial problem as it was related to human rights violation, involving around 14 million Kashmiris. Rehman appealed to the international community to pressurize India to withdraw forces from the Occupied Kashmir, stop state terrorism and allow human rights organizations 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 added the mass movement continuing since 2008 had exposed Indian propaganda that the upsurge in the occupied Kashmir was a terrorist movement sponsored from abroad.

British MP from Birmingham, Yasmin Qureshi, also spoke on the occasion and pledged to raise the Kashmir issue in the House of Commons.

She said that in her opinion people of Kashmir should decide their own destiny, adding that there could be no stability or tranquility in the region without first solving the issue. The newly-appointed member of the upper House of Lords, Lord Qurban Hussain said the Kashmir issue had always been dear to him since he originated from the valley.

“It will be my endeavor to get India to agree to bring an end to the human right violations (there) and release all the prisoners,” he said, adding that he would strive to serve the cause of Kashmir as long as he remained a member of British Parliament.

MNA Aamir Magsi, a member of the delegation, and Azad Jammu and Kashmir Information Minister Mahmood Riaz, also spoke on the occasion and stressed the need to create more awareness about the Kashmir issue both at home and abroad.

Source: Daily Times.
Link: http://www.dailytimes.com.pk/default.asp?page=2010\11\28\story_28-11-2010_pg7_11.