ISLAMABAD: The future of Kashmir cannot be determined by India unilaterally, said international lawmakers from EU and UK, and affirmed the right of the Kashmiri people as principal stakeholders of the conflict.
With UNGA's 75th session scheduled in days, lawmakers, thought leaders, diplomats and journalists from the EU, UK, India, Pakistan, and IIOJ Kashmir and Azad Kashmir agreed that the international community must know how Kashmir has become extremely restive since August 5th last year, and this comes with implications for conflict escalation in the region.
This was stated at Jinnah Institute's webinar titled 'The Future of Kashmir: A Test for Global Multilateralism and Regional Peace' on September 12, 2020.
Senator Sherry Rehman said that Kashmir is the oldest issue on the agenda of the United Nations, and must not be forgotten, or treated as an inconvenient regional issue that can be airbrushed away by the international community.
Both as a strategic issue, and an international dispute that lies at the faultline between two nuclear countries that have gone to war over Kashmir, the matter cannot be pushed aside or treated as an internal issue of India, especially after the brutal unilateralism that New Delhi has shown.
Sardar Masood Khan, President Azad Jammu & Kashmir said that the situation on ground is nothing better than a foreign occupation whose driving force is a fascist Hindutva agenda.
He said that the BJP is steering demographic change in a bid to manipulate voter turnout in its favour, and any claims about Pakistan supporting the current freedom are categorically false; they should be seen as attempts to obfuscate the indigenous nature of the uprising.
British MP Andrew Gwynne from the Labour Party agreed that Britain was responsible insofar how it left Kashmir unresolved at the time of Partition, and added that his country had a positive role to play as a member of the UN Security Council.
MP James Daly from the Conservative Party recounted his visit to AJK in February 2020 along with other lawmakers, where his delegation was given free access to interact with citizens at all levels, in order to ascertain the situation on ground.
"We were treated with complete openness...unfortunately, our group was not let into India, and we were not able to speak with the Indian government in a free and open manner," he stated.
Veteran Kashmiri journalist Iftikhar Gilani saw that Kashmiri history, culture and language is being erased by the BJP's Hindutva onslaught against the Muslim majority state.
Ambassador Tariq Fatemi highlighted that India had reneged on UNSC resolutions and bilateral commitments with Pakistan in abrogating the Article 370. The political and military leadership across Pakistan had offered to resolve the Kashmir challenge, but India had "unleashed terror and genocide" in the restive region.
Former BJP politician Sudheendra Kulkarni said that abrogation of Article 370 was unconstitutional and unjust, and had transformed the Kashmir issue to one now involving three states; Pakistan, China and India.
German MP Michael Gahler stated that India and Pakistan's acrimonious past cannot be changed, but to proceed ahead and formulate ways of resolving the challenge, there is need for neutral observers to collect information and report to the international community.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020
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