In international courts: PTI to take up Kashmir issue with British government

Chaudhry Sarwar says he will make public Pakistan’s stance

LAHORE: The leader of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf, Chaudhry Sarwar, has said he would go to London to meet Pakistanis there and ask them to take up the issue in Kashmir with the government there.

While speaking at a news conference on Saturday at Lahore Press Club, Sarwar said he will be going to the United Kingdom for 10 days to make public Pakistan’s stance on the Kashmir issue.

Sarwar said his party would play its role on a political level against India. He maintained PTI Chairperson Imran Khan has also asked him to highlight Pakistan’s view on Kashmir in the House of Lords and House of Commons.

The party leader said 1,200 Kashmiris have given their lives and 700 others have lost their vision after being shot with pellets by the Indian forces. Due to the 91-day curfew, people in Kashmir cannot go to their places of worship or assemble [to protest], he said, adding this is a violation of their basic rights.

Besides the recent atrocities, Sarwar said, thousands of Kashmiris have lost their lives since the Kashmir movement started.  “Mass graves have been found in Kashmir,” he added. “It is the need of the hour to counter India at an international level.”

PTI would also take the issue to the International Court of Justice of the United Nations against the Indian government for also violating the water treaty it had signed with Pakistan, the party leader said.

About the claim of surgical strikes, Sarwar said the Indian government could not provide proofs of the claims. He added if the Indian government took any such step in future, Pakistanis and the armed forces will react in a strong way. He demanded the rights activists of India to condemn their prime minister, Narendra Modi’s, aggressive policies.

He said he joined the politics of UK after seeing atrocities on Kashmiris and Palestinians. He is the former British Labour member of the Parliament in Glasgow.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 9^th, 2016.