ISLAMABAD, Feb 7: Lack of a national policy on Kashmir was felt at a seminar here on Thursday.

The seminar on “the Kashmir issue” was organised by Institute of Strategic Studies. Speakers belonging to different political parties had divergent views on how to resolve the long-standing issue.

Khurram Dastgir Khan, a member of the National Assembly belonging to the PML-N, said Pakistan had failed to raise the issue.

“We should build relations with India but should not forget that Kashmir is bleeding. We have failed to raise the issue properly, so now when we talk about Kashmir no one seems to be ready to listen to us. It is a challenge for us to make the issue relevant,” he said.

Senator Haji Adeel of the ANP said he did not think Kashmiris wanted to join Pakistan.

“We have our own problems. We are facing terrorism and fundamentalism. We don’t have a proper democratic system. People are being killed in Karachi and Quetta. We have to change our country before thinking that Kashmiris will join Pakistan,” he said.

MNA Dr Attiya Inayatullah of the PML said Kashmir was the backbone of Pakistan and there would be no peace in the region as long as the issue was not resolved.

Former diplomat Akram Zaki said people of Indian held Kashmir raise the flag of Pakistan on August 14 every year which is a referendum against India.

“We cannot forget the two nation theory as Pakistan and India came into being because of that theory and even the British parliament validated the division of the subcontinent on that basis.”  He said the ill-planned Kargil adventure by Pervez Musharraf damaged the Kashmir case.

Yusuf Nasim from All Parties Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) said Kashmiris believed that people of Pakistan, not its leaders, always stood beside them.

“Almost one third of parliament of Pakistan consists of Kashmiris and all of them are taxpayers. I should mention that not a single Kashmiri has migrated from Pakistan to India. However, millions of Kashmiris have migrated to Pakistan from the Indian held Kashmir and they have no complaints against Pakistan,” he said.—A Reporter