JUI-F chief urges Pakistan, India to resolve Kashmir issue via dialogue

Fazlur Rehman says that all religious parties wanted good relations with India.

ISLAMABAD: Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (Fazl) chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman has urged India to withdraw its ‘unfinished agenda’ in Kashmir, and to renew talks with Pakistan afresh to resolve the decades long dispute.

Rehman, who is the chairman of the special parliamentary committee on Kashmir, on Saturday asked the Pakistani leadership to review its Kashmir policy and to pave the way for fresh dialogue on Indian Kashmir.

“New Delhi should fulfil its promise for the effective exercise of Kashmiri’s rights, as envisaged in the relevant United Nations’ resolutions,” observed Fazl during a meeting of the Kashmir committee. “Concepts of talks, mediation and military strategies should be defined on the dialogue table,” he outlined, adding that the “Kashmir valley can play a role of bridge for endorsing peace between two South Asian nuclear neighbours.”

He said that the Pakistan Peoples Party could not boost Kashmir’s cause since efforts had suffered a major blow following Americas’ war on terrorism in 2001. “It [PPP] should convey its message on Kashmir day to the Indian Congress regarding the reservations of the Kashmiri people,” he said.

The people from the valley, Rehman asserted, had always safeguarded Pakistan’s interests and that they never wanted the country to sacrifice its interests for their sake.

The JUI-F chief, who was once part of the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal, a platform that united major religious parties of Pakistan under one banner, said that all religious political parties wanted good relations with India, and that all issues be addressed through meaningful dialogues. These parties, Rehman explained, had renewed their unwavering support for the just struggle of the Kashmiri’s for their fundamental and inalienable rights.

“We support the Kashmiri’s cause but don’t support terrorism in the region,” he noted.

The JUI-F chief also criticised Indian Army on violating human rights in war-torn Kashmir valley, adding that the fundamental human rights of the people of Jammu and Kashmir are being denied since 1947.