Addressing a seminar, Kashmir Issue: Past and Future, organised by the Punjab University’s Pakistan Study Centre at Al Raazi Hall.
He was addressing a seminar, Kashmir Issue: Past and Future, organised by the Punjab University’s Pakistan Study Centre at Al Raazi Hall.
Majid said he was hopeful that the PU’s Kashmir Cell, set up recently, would help highlight the brutalities committed in Indian-held Kashmir. The prime minister also announced a Rs2 million grant for the cell to hold conferences.
Vice Chancellor Mujahid Kamran presided over the seminar. MNA Nasir Iqbal Bosaal, former foreign secretary Shamshad Ahmad Khan, Quaid-i-Azam University Professor Nazir Hussain, and Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Humanities Mussarrat Abid also attended the event.
Majid said all political parties in Kashmir were united on the issue of their right to self-determination. He said it was unfortunate that the Indian government had hanged Afzal Guru to appease a segment of its population but Pakistan’s Foreign Office had kept mum over the issue. He said Pakistan’s media also needs to revisit its policy towards the issue of Kashmir. Majid said that hundreds of thousands of Kashmiris had been killed since Pakistan was created.
He said that he had cancelled the Kashmir Day holiday on February 5 to express solidarity with the people of Occupied Kashmir. He said it was unfortunate that so many Pakistanis, especially the youth, were unaware of the Kashmir conflict. He said there was a need to revisit Pakistan’s foreign policy on the issue.
Speaking about the AJK government, he said they were focusing on education and had spent most of their resources on setting up universities, medical colleges and other academic institutions. He stressed the need for exchange of students and faculty among universities of Pakistan and Azad Kashmir.
Dr Mujahid Kamran said the PU had set up the Kashmir Cell to conduct academic research on Indian atrocities in Indian-held Kashmir. Former foreign secretary Shamshad Ahmed Khan called for practical steps for the freedom of Kashmir and stressed the need for the political leadership of Pakistan and Azad Kashmir to be on the same page.
Prof Nazir Hussain said there wasn’t a single household in Indian-held Kashmir from which someone had not been martyred.
Published in The Express Tribune, April 18th, 2015.
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