Pakistan

Lawmakers urge Kashmir policy rethink

Former PM calls for a joint session on Kashmir with Pakistani parliament.

Roshan Mughal October 07, 2010

MUZAFFARABAD: Opposition lawmakers in the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Assembly on Wednesday demanded a review of the Kashmir policy and discontinuation of dialogue with India until New Delhi accepts Kashmir as a disputed territory.

“Any kind of dialogue at any level with India, at this crucial juncture, will be akin to back-stabbing the Kashmir liberation movement which has entered a decisive phase,” former prime minister Raja Farooq Haider Khan said while taking part in the debate on a resolution regarding the Kashmir situation. Khan urged the house to demand a joint session with the Pakistani parliament for devising a foreign policy that has Kashmir at its core.

Taking part in the debate, former speaker Shah Ghulam Qadir criticised Prime Minister Sardar Attique Khan on his recent trips to the US and Europe, describing his meetings with foreign leaders as mere “photo sessions.”

Qadir said premier Khan was planning another trip to Brussels which may cost the exchequer Rs4-5 million.

This, he said, could be compared to the claims made by the minister for public works that his department does not have enough cash to purchase bulldozers in order to open blocked roads in the Neelum Valley.

Earlier the speaker constituted a house committee to assess the damages caused by the recent spell of floods. The house will meet again on Thursday.

Published in The Express Tribune, October 7^th, 2010.

COMMENTS (1)

Ali Sina | 14 years ago | Reply My take is that we really need to get our strategy right before getting into the stew with Washington. With a long-term perspective in mind, sharing a border with China is a dangerous proposition for us. Pakistan becomes the eye of the storm as the great game is played out between the US, China, and India. And that means Pakistan will become the next Afghanistan for a very long time. It might be worthwhile considering alternatives and compromises where we don’t have a border with China. That would most certainly pave the way for sustained economic growth at par with India. As they say “It’s the economy, stupid.”

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