Kashmir Committee: Calls to replace Fazlur Rehman as chairman

A large number of people participate in rallies to mark Kashmir Solidarity Day.

ISLAMABAD: A leader from Azad and Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) has demanded that Fazlur Rehman should be removed from chairmanship of the Kashmir Committee, terming him ‘inactive’ and ‘passive’ in his present capacity.

“Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (Hind) was not in favour of the creation of Pakistan...Fazlur Rehman is not a suitable person to head the committee,” said Jammu and Kashmir Peoples’ Party (JKPP) leader Sardar Khalid Ibrahim while speaking at an event marking  Kashmir Solidarity Day, organised by the Youth Forum For Kashmir (YFK) at the National Press Club on Thursday.

He said solidarity day has symbolic importance, not historic grounds.

“All political parties have set aside their difference to express solidarity with Kashmiris, which sends good signals across the border,” he said.

“India admits that 72,000 Kashmiris have sacrificed their lives during the freedom struggle, and the sacrifices remind us that we (Kashmiris) will not give up until we get the right of self determination.”

All Parities Hurriyat Conference representative Abdullah Gilani said that the Narendra Modi’s government was bent on making demographic changes in Indian Kashmir to turn the Muslims majority into a minority.

Muslim Institute Director Tahir Mehmood said that the Pakistani government should revive “Kashmir cells” in its embassies to promote the Kashmir cause.

Meanwhile, the Muslim Institute also organised a rally from China Chowk to the National Press Club to mark Kashmir Solidarity Day. A large number of people from all walks of life participated in the rally. Former ambassador Akram Zaki, Kashmiri leaders Sardar Khalid and Ibrahim Khan, former ambassador Munawar Bhatti, Muslim Institute Program Manager Ahmad Raza and others said the Indian armed forces have killed thousands of innocent Kashmiris including children, but its cruelty has failed to stop the struggle for the right to self-determination.

They said that Kashmir was not a religious, geographical or a linguistic dispute, but an issue of basic human rights.

If East Timor and South Sudan issues could be resolved by international community, why not the Kashmir issue, the speakers asked.

Published in The Express Tribune, February 6^th, 2015.