Pakistan Peoples Party workers at their Kashmir Day rally in front of the Press Club on Thursday. PHOTO: ABID NAWAZ/EXPRESS
The Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf (PTI) had arranged a seminar at Aiwan-i-Iqbal. Several PTI leaders addressed the seminar attended by hundreds the party supporters.
They said relations between Pakistan and India could not improve unless the Kashmir issue was resolved.
“Economic security cannot be ensured unless there is peace in the region,” PTI Kashmir Committee chairman Khurshid Mahmud Kasuri told the audience.
He said if India did not work on improving ties with Pakistan, it would never be able to play the kind of significant ‘global role’ that he said New Delhi aspired to. He said no country with an internal situation like that of Pakistan could have a successful foreign policy.
“Pakistan’s voice will not be heard in the global arena if we are not stronger. If we want to help Kashmiris, we should first unite and strengthen ourselves.”
He said all Pakistan political parties should unite on the Kashmir issue. “If they [India] have nuclear weapons so do we. But civilised societies call upon both sides to bring about peace through dialogue,” he said.
PTI Punjab president Ejaz Chaudhry called Kashmir an ‘unfinished agenda of the creation of Pakistan’.
“Pakistan is incomplete without an independent Kashmir,” he said. He said thousands of Kashmiris were suffering state oppression.
“We cannot choose our neighbours but we can change attitudes and mindsets to resolve the issue,” Chaudhry said. He stressed the need for presenting Pakistan’s stance on the issue on global platforms.
PTI Punjab general secretary Yasmin Rashid said any country that perpetrated violence, like India did in Kashmir, should not be a permanent member of the United Nations Security Council. She regretted that India exercised great influence in the United Nations.The PTI also passed a resolution that called for abandoning attempts to establish economic ties with India until the Kashnmir issue was resolved.
Naeem Mir, a spokesman for the PTI, said that without the resolution of the Kashmir conflict, bilateral ties could not be established with India although traders on both sides of the border wanted to establish economic ties.
APML
The All Pakistan Muslim League (APML) said on Thursday Indian-held Kashmir (IHK) was an inseparable part of Pakistan.
“Pakistan is incomplete without Kashmir,” APML General Secretary Chaudhry Zulfiqar Ali Nadeem said.
“India must respect the Kashmiris’ right to self-determination.” He said India had occupied Kashmir for the last 67 years. He said India must realise that peace could not be achieved without resolving the dispute.
PPP
The Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) set up a camp in front of the Punjab Assembly to express solidarity with the people of IHK.
PPP Punjab president Manzoor Ahmad Wattoo cited party founder Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s statement: “We will fight for a thousand of years for the rights of Kashmiris.”
Wattoo said India had denied Kashmiris their right to self-determination. He said implementation of the United Nations’ resolution was the only viable solution to the problem.
Published in The Express Tribune, February 6th, 2015.
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Kashmir which has been under constant suppression since the partition of the subcontinent and its been since decades that no country or international platform has been remained successful enough to resolve the dispute. Out of many issue Kashmir has remained the bone of contention and unresolved issue. UNSC which seems to be happy while granting a permanent seat in UN must count its irreducible and irreparable damages done to Kashmir and the people living inside. I think in order to resolve the Kashmir issue it would be better to ask the Kashmiri people which way they want to go and which state they want to join. I dont think they either want to join Pakistan nor India.
No peace for who? All Indian states including Jammu Kashmir are peaceful. No peace in KP, Occupied Baluchistan, Occupied Kashmir, Occupied Sindh and Pakistani Punjab.