Kashmir day: Support for Kashmir cause stays firm

Rallies, seminars express need for resolution of issue.

MIRPUR/ ISLAMABAD:

Rallies, seminars and cultural programmes were arranged by various organisations in the federal capital to express solidarity with the people of Kashmir.

The participants reiterated their support to the struggle for freedom of Jammu and Kashmir and demanded a peaceful solution to the simmering issue.

Muslim Institute, an Islamabad-based think-tank, organised a rally here on Wednesday to show solidarity with the people of Kashmir.

The rally started from China Chowk on Jinnah Avenue and terminated at National Press Club.

Former ambassador Asif Ezdi, Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front spokesperson Dr Rafiq Dar, Jammu Kashmir People’s Party president of his own faction Sardar Khalid Ibrahim addressed the participants of the rally.

They said right to self-determination was the basic right of Kashmiri people. “We will always stand by them in their struggle,” they said.

Media’s role in highlighting Kashmir issue

At a seminar organised by the National Press Club on Wednesday, speakers said Afghanistan has been in the limelight of the international media while Kashmir has not been highlighted. Peace cannot be ensured in the region unless Kashmir and Afghanistan issues are given equal importance and resolved peacefully, they said.

Azad Kashmir’s political leaders including Barrister Sultan Mehmood, Khalid Ibrahim of the JKPP, former speaker of the AJK Legislative Assembly and secretary-general of PML-N Shah Ghulam Qadir, PFUJ President Afzal Butt, NPC President Sheheryar Khan, addressed the seminar on Media’s role in freedom struggle of Kashmir”.

The main reason behind the failure of several efforts in resolving the issue was ignoring the real stakeholders – the people of Kashmir – from dialogue.

The speakers urged the media to play its role in highlighting the issue.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 6^th, 2014.