Lack of concern: Kashmir committee role remains largely ceremonial

Members claim Fazlur Rehman calls meetings infrequently

ISLAMABAD: At a time when Pakistan-India tensions are rising in the backdrop of last week’s attack on Indian forces near the Line of Control (LoC), the Special Committee on Kashmir Affairs seems to be in a dormant mode.

JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman is head of the committee, which is supposed to highlight the Kashmir issue. However, the committee’s role appears to have been ritualistic, limited to passing resolutions and giving recommendations over the issue.

Fazl has summoned the committee’s meeting next week in which Ministry of Foreign Affairs will give an in-camera briefing to the panel. In the committee’s last meeting which took place on July 20, the panel had condemned the Indian aggression and passed a resolution while supporting the cause of Kashmiris after the same officials of foreign ministry briefed the lawmakers.

According to the agenda of the upcoming meeting which is scheduled for September 27, the panel will also review the visit of 22 lawmakers, sent abroad by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to highlight the Kashmir issue in different world capitals.

The committee’s members from opposition parties have been criticising the chairman for not calling the committee’s meeting regularly. They say Fazl only enjoys perks and privileges attached with the position of the chairman, whose status is equal to a minister.

PTI lawmaker Engineer Dawar Khan Kundi, who is also member of the committee, criticised Fazl, claiming that since his appointment he had only called three to four meetings of the committee – a fact, which, he said, indicates his non seriousness towards Kashmir cause.

PPP lawmaker Nawab Ali Wassan, who is also a member of the committee, said the committee’s chairman should have gone with the prime minister to attend the UN General Assembly session.

“We (the opposition) forced him to call the meeting of the committee. Otherwise, Fazl has no interest in Kashmir,” he claimed. Wassan said he was nominated by the primer to highlight the Kashmir’s issue in Moscow but he declined.

Published in The Express Tribune, September 26^th, 2016.