Spotlight on Kashmir: what to do next?

Foreign policy experts call for keeping Kashmir issue in global consciousness with consistency

KARACHI: It is a somber affair for Pakistanis from all walks of life when Kashmir Day rolls around every year. As our leaders exhort the world community to honour the commitment made to Kashmiris decades ago, even ordinary Pakistanis can’t help but feel the despondency the people of the Indian occupied part of the disputed region continue to live through.

Still, this Kashmir Solidarity Day is a bit different. With the people of Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOJ&K) languishing in what still amounts to an open air prison; with their leaders still under home arrest and many of their male family members incarcerated at unknown locations; with the entirety of India sliding under the unchallenged hegemony of right-wing extremism; the stakes it seems have never been higher.

The disputed region has been in lockdown since Aug 5 last year. PHOTO: REUTERS/FILE

As we renew our vow to support the struggle of Kashmiris, it is important that we as a nation reflect on the opportunities we have missed and the tangible steps our government can still take to alleviate both the immediate plight of the people of IOJ&K and to finally ensure that their right to self-determination is honoured.

On August 5, when Narendra Modi’s government illegally revoked the constitutional provisions that guaranteed IOJ&K nominal autonomy, everyone in Pakistan it seemed had been caught off guard. Especially as just a few days prior, when Premier Imran Khan travelled to the US, President Donald Trump had suggested that the former’s Indian counterpart asked for mediation on the Kashmir dispute.

Even so, as the Indian government placed the entire disputed territory under lockdown and suspended all communication channels, Pakistani analysts pointed out that the move presented another opportunity for Islamabad. For once, they said, India’s brutality in the disputed region could no longer be ignored.

Former foreign secretary Shamshad Ahmad, speaking to The Express Tribune at the time, noted that the move had woken up the world’s conscience to Modi’s “groundwork for genocide”. Barrister Asad Rahim highlighted the “growing momentum within the UN to take cognisance of India’s unchecked abuses in the Valley.”

When Prime Minister Imran Khan addressed the United Nations General Assembly the following month, Pakistan’s position on IOJ&K seemed even as stronger. As they hailed him putting the Kashmir dispute back in the spotlight, many of Pakistan’s preeminent foreign policy experts urged the government to capitalise on the space his speech had opened up.

Speaking to The Express Tribune shortly after the PM Imran’s UNGA address, former ambassador Abdul Basit had stressed the importance of keeping the Kashmir issue in global consciousness with consistency. “We should avoid falling into the trap of complacency,” he warned at the time.

However, as various issues, domestic and otherwise, took over the government’s attention, it appeared the nation fell into the habits the former envoy cautioned about. Instead of building diplomatic capabilities, as Basit had advised, the government stuck to same diplomatic strategy on Kashmir as its predecessors.

So what exactly is it that the government should have done differently? What options still exist for Pakistan if it is to play a more proactive role in support of Kashmiris?

A practical step that was suggested time and again after Modi’s removal of Articles 370 and 35-A was to lobby to get the UNGA to vote for obtaining an advisory opinion from the International Court of Justice on the Kashmir liberation movement.

“No just ICJ decision would be able to deny that India’s revocation of Article 370 is illegal,” noted UK-based solicitor Muzzammil Mukhtar, who has expertise in international law. He pointed out that renowned Malaysian origin barrister Dato Firoz Hussein Ahmad Jamaluddin, who has extensive experience in ICJ matters, also believed this option would be a prudent one.

Speaking to The Express Tribune earlier this year, Shamshad brought up this idea again. “This step should have been taken immediately after the premier’s UN address,” he had said. “It carries risks yes, but it would only fail if our diplomacy was inadequate,” he added.

The former foreign secretary had also called for more concerted efforts by Pakistan’s diplomatic apparatus in various capitals around the world. A novel approach he suggested was for Pakistan to mobilise its envoys in countries where Nobel laureates reside. “The Nobel laureates need to smell the gunpowder in the streets of Kashmir,” he had urged. “We need practical steps, not just statements, and tweets.”

Another step Pakistan can yet take, which former envoy Basit has called for repeatedly, is appointing a special envoy on Jammu and Kashmir to sensitise global leaders on the Kashmir dispute. He has also suggested exploring actions Pakistan could take on a bilateral level to impose some cost on India.

One of these would be to transfer Pakistan’s high commissioner designate for India to somewhere else to dispel the impression in Delhi that ties will revert to status quo. Another, according to Basit, would be close Pakistani airspace to Indian airlines.

PHOTO: AFP

Internationally, Basit, Rahim and others have suggested the Pakistan government should shift its focus from other countries’ governments to their civil society. This, they have mentioned, would entail engaging their media and civil society organisations as well as the Pakistani diaspora to change public perceptions.

Rahim, for instance, pointed to the case of Palestine. “Within our lifetime, we have seen a paradigm shift on Israel in the West. Earlier, when Egypt and Syria had a belligerent attitude towards Israel, the world saw Palestine as simply a political issue. Now, however, the narrative has shifted,” he said in an earlier conversation with The Express Tribune. “All the violence in Occupied Kashmir, we need to focus our narrative on that and the people of Kashmir to engage civil society around the world and delegitimise Indian occupation.”

Ultimately, Pakistan’s approach to the dispute must be Kashmiri people-centric if it is to win global support and bring an end to their ongoing plight.