ISLAMABAD: National Assembly Speaker Asad Qaiser Monday wrote letters to the Secretary General of Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU) and Acting Secretary of General Commonwealth Parliamentary Association (CPA) demanding an inquiry into the continued abuse of human rights and constitutional freedoms in Indian occupied Kashmir (IoK).
He proposed dispatch of fact-finding missions comprising the parliamentarians from IPU Member Parliaments and CPA Branches without further delay.
Apprising the Secretary General of IPU and Acting Secretary General of CPA, the speaker said the government of Narendra Modi unilaterally scrapped Articles 35-A and 370 respectively from the Indian Constitution on August 5.
He further said by doing so, the Indian government has by usurpation, formally annexed the disputed territory, depriving the people of Kashmir the sole nationality and property rights in the State.
He said although, Pakistan had never recognized this farce arrangement and had always considered it an eye-wash, yet by going back on its own pledges, New Delhi had once again demonstrated its real designs concerning Kashmir and its people.
Referring to the Article 1 of the Statutes of the Inter Parliamentary Union, the speaker in his letter to Secretary General of IPU said IPU as the focal point for worldwide parliamentary dialogue was obliged to work for peace and cooperation among peoples and their representative institutions, foster contacts, coordination and the exchange of experience among Parliaments and parliamentarians of all countries besides considering questions of international interest and express its views on such issues with the aim of bringing about action by Parliaments and their members.
He further reiterated that it was thus a binary responsibility of the IPU to contribute to the defence and promotion of human rights anywhere in the world, therefore, attention of the IPU, towards the ongoing plight of the besieged and beleaguered innocent men, women and children of Kashmir was being drawn.
The speaker, in his letter to Acting Secretary General of CPA recalled decision of Pakistan as host of the 61st proposed CPA Conference to not extend invitation of participation to the legislature of IoK as matter of its legitimacy.
He said Pakistan’s argument was not supported and National Assembly of Pakistan was barred from holding the said CPA on the pretext that CPA was bound to protect the interests of all its branches.
The speaker said now the very same Branch of IoK had been put in abeyance, therefore, the CPA was morally bound to investigate the causes and circumstances for such abeyance.
Informing the secretaries generals, the speaker said the entire occupied valley had been put under siege with a dawn-to-dusk curfew, suspension of internet services and a complete blockade of any other means of communication.
He said the entire Kashmiri leadership had been put under arrest including the pro-plebiscite leaders of the Hurriyat Conference, as well as those who had accepted Indian domination and were working with it for the hope of a better future such as the former chief ministers of the IoK Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah and even the 81 year old former chief minister Farooq Abdullah had also been taken into custody. He stressed that the IPU's Committee on Human Right of Parliamentarians, as constituted under Article 23 of the IPU statutes, should look into the persecution of these representatives.
The speaker said in view of the aggravated situation in IoK, on behalf of the National Assembly of Pakistan, as an esteemed Member of the IPU and CPA fraternities, he demand inquiries into the continued abuse of human rights and constitutional freedoms in the Indian Occupied State of Jammu and Kashmir by the IPU and CPA.