ISLAMABAD: The Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJ&K) President, Sardar Masood Khan, has emphasised the need for internationalising the Kashmir issue, and enhancing effective communication with the international community to attract due attention of the comity of nations to the dispute.
The AJ&K president was addressing a webinar, "Role of Diaspora in Seeking Peaceful Settlement of Jammu and Kashmir Dispute", organised by Pakistan's Permanent Mission to the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) in Jeddah. Khan was the keynote speaker at the webinar.
Members of the British Parliament, Lord Nazir Ahmed and Khalid Mahmood, along with prominent Kashmiris including Dr Ghulam Nabi Fai, USA, Dr Ghulam Nabi Mir, USA, Barrister Abdul Majid Tramboo, Belgium, Professor Nazir Ahmed Shawl, UK, and Masood Ahmed Puri, Saudi Arabia, also addressed the webinar.
The webinar was convened in connection with the forthcoming "Exploitation Day" marking the first anniversary of India's illegal and unilateral actions of August 5, 2019.
In his address, the AJK president presented a six-point agenda for effectively raising the Kashmir issue at the international level.
The six-point agenda, he said, encompassed leveraging the strengths of the Kashmiri diaspora, developing coalitions of various diaspora organisations, effective communication with the international community including the international media, prominent think tanks and important politicians; focusing on internationalising the Kashmir issue, and making efforts to strengthen Pakistan and Azad Kashmir, economically and politically, so as to attract due attention of the comity of nations on the Jammu and Kashmir dispute.
The other speakers at the event called for greater mobilisation of Pakistani and Kashmiri diaspora, highlighting the Indian atrocities, avoiding disunity and fragmentation, closer coordination among various diaspora organisations, and continued engagement with the local communities, including parliamentarians, government officials, media personalities and other notables.
Earlier, in his welcome remarks, Pakistan's Permanent Representative to the OIC Ambassador Rizwan Saeed Sheikh maintained that the OIC could help generate a critical mass of support for raising the Jammu and Kashmir dispute at other international fora.
He stated that the Kashmiri diaspora could play an important role in raising awareness about the Jammu and Kashmir dispute at the international level, and projecting a unified stance with legal and historical accuracy.
He emphasised that the Kashmiri influentials needed to harmonise efforts and narrative. Ambassador Sheikh also highlighted a number of similarities between the Palestine and Kashmir issues, with a special focus on a common genesis, premised on the right to self-determination enshrined in the relevant UN Security Council resolutions.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2020