Only Kashmiris can decide their future: Sartaj Aziz

Adviser to PM responds to Sushma Swaraj's statement that 'Kashmir can never become a part of Pakistan'

A day after India's External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj said Kashmir can never become part of Pakistan, Prime Minister's Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz said on Sunday only Kashmiris could decide their future.

“Such a verdict on the future of Kashmir can only be given by the people of Kashmir and not by the External Affairs Minister [Sushma Swaraj] of India,” he said in response to Swaraj’s statement.

Sushma’s statement came a day after Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif said Pakistanis were waiting for the day when Jammu and Kashmir would become a part of Pakistan.

Speaking at a rally in Muzaffarabad after the PML-N’s electoral victory, he urged Kashmiris in Pakistan “not to forget those in [Indian] held Kashmir who are sacrificing their lives to their movement for freedom”.



The Indian minister also criticised Nawaz for calling Burhan Wani, a Kashmiri rebel assassinated by Indian occupying forces, a martyr.

Commenting on the debate, Aziz said: “Here again, India cannot ignore the fact that over 200,000 Kashmiris participated in the funeral prayers of Burhan Muzaffar Wani,” adding that not many years ago British colonial power regarded Indian freedom fighters as traitors and terrorists.



Aziz called for a plebiscite in the contested region, according to the United Nations resolutions.

“It is high time that India allowed the people of Jammu and Kashmir to exercise this right through a free and fair UN supervised plebiscite. Once the majority of the people of Kashmir have voted for joining either Pakistan or India the whole world will accept this verdict of the Kashmiri people.”

He reiterated that government and the people of Pakistan remained firmly to the Kashmiris’ indigenous movement for self-determination and resolution of the dispute in accordance with the relevant UN Security Council Resolutions on the valley.