Hindu senator presides over session on IIOJK

Upper house unanimously passes resolution expressing solidarity with Kashmiri people

ISLAMABAD:

The Senate on Friday, under the chairpersonship of a Hindu senator, unanimously passed a resolution expressing solidarity with the people of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) and rejected New Delhi’ s illegal and unilateral actions of the annexation of the disputed territory on August 5, 2019.

The Senate session, called to especially discuss the current situation in IIOJK on the eve of Kashmir Solidarity Day, was briefly presided over by PPP’s Hindu Senator Krishna Kumari Kohli to send a strong message to the world how minorities were treated in Pakistan against India.

“There can’t be a bigger slap on [Indian PM Narendra] Modi’s face than this,” Senator Kohli, the first female senator from the Hindu Dalit community, said while chairing the session.

The senator, amid desk-thumping, added that she wanted to give a message to Modi that this was the real face of Pakistan, which had allowed a Hindu member to preside over the session.

Ashok Swain, Professor of Peace and Conflict Research at Uppsala University, tweeted that on February 5, Pakistan observed Kashmir Solidarity Day.

“In teasing New India, in Pakistan's Senate, a Hindu Dalit woman, Krishna Kumari Kohli, is given the honor to preside today's Senate Session,” he added.

Senator Faisal Javed also tweeted that a Hindu senator presiding over the Senate Session on IIOJK in Pakistan in connection with the Kashmir Solidarity Day was a strong message depicting difference between Pakistan and Hindustan.

According to the resolution, the Senate, while reflecting the sentiments of the people of Pakistan, saluted the heroism and valour of the people of IIOJK on the day of solidarity with the Kashmiri people.

It rejected the Indian illegal and unilateral actions of August 5, 2019 and demanded that New Delhi reverse and revoke these steps, which were a gross violation of all UN resolutions on Jammu and Kashmir.

Read Pakistan urges UN to take cognizance of India's war crimes in IIOJK

The House firmly condemned the unabated Indian human rights violations, war crimes and violations of international humanitarian law in IIOJK.

Ever since Aug 5 2019, the resolution read, hundreds of innocent Kashmiris have been martyred, arbitrarily arrested or rounded up under trumped-up charges.

The upper house of the parliament warned India that even the worst form of state-terrorism would not break the will of the Kashmiri people or crush their legitimate struggle, which was “popular, spontaneous, widespread and indigenous”.

It demanded that the world should hold Modi and his RSS fascist organisation, which had unleashed a reign of terror on the defenceless people of IIOJK and were involved in unspeakable atrocities, accountable for their crimes against humanity.

The Senate also called upon the Indian government to stop the extrajudicial killing of Kashmiri youth in fake encounters and in the cordon and search operations.

It denounced the illegal Indian measures to change the demographic structure of the occupied territory and the efforts to peddle a facade of normalcy. It further demanded immediate release of all political prisoners in IIJOK.

The upper house of parliament called upon the international community to must take note of India’s belligerence, intransigence and brazen persistence of cruelty against the Kashmiri people, including the danger of genocide which was now documented internationally.

The lawmakers said the Senate expected that the international community would take cognisance and action against India's gross and widespread human rights violations in IIOJK as well as its open repudiation of UN resolutions.

Through the resolution, the Senate reassured the Kashmiri brothers and sisters that the people, government and parliament of Pakistan would always stand firm with them in their just struggle until the resolution of this dispute in accordance with their wishes and as per the relevant UNSC resolutions.

The Senate reiterated its support to the people of Kashmir in their just struggle for their inalienable right to self-determination every step of the way.

Before the session concluded, Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani directed the officials concerned that a copy of the resolution be sent to all the presiding officers across the world and to the secretary general of the United Nations.