MUZAFFARABAD: The Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Legislative Assembly on Wednesday called upon India to rescind its illegal and unilateral actions taken on and beyond Aug 5, 2019 in India-held Kashmir and implement relevant United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions to allow Kashmiris to democratically determine their future through a free and fair UN-sponsored plebiscite.

While appreciating Pakistan’s “unstinting moral, diplomatic and political support” to the Kashmir cause, it urged India to allow an independent investigation into human rights violations in India-held Kashmir as recommended by the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights in June 2018 and July 2019.

The house expressed these views through a unanimously passed resolution at a special session which was earlier also addressed by AJK President Barrister Sultan Mahmood.

The resolution, which was read in the house by prime minister and PTI president Sardar Tanveer Ilyas, was jointly tabled by him and eight other lawmakers, including leader of the opposition Chaudhry Latif Akbar, PPP regional president Chaudhry Mohammad Yasin, PML-N regional president Shah Ghulam Qadir, Muslim Conference president Sardar Attique Ahmed Khan, Jammu Kashmir People’s Party president Sardar Hassan Ibrahim, former premiers Raja Farooq Haider (PML-N), Sardar Yaqoob Khan (PPP) and Sardar Abdul Qayyum Niazi (PTI).

Seeks UN-sponsored plebiscite

Recalling that Kashmir was one of the oldest unresolved international disputes on the UN agenda, the house expressed serious concern over India’s attempts to introduce demographic changes in the occupied territory through issuance of domicile certificates to outsiders, allowing purchase of land by non-Kashmiris, inclusion of temporary residents in the voters lists and fresh delimitation of electoral constituencies.

Condemning vehemently the unrelenting extrajudicial killings, arbitrary detentions, the so-called ‘siege and search’ operations, destruction and confiscation of properties and torture, the house paid glowing tributes to the Kashmiri people for their valour, courage and sacrifices in the world’s most militarised zone, plagued by more than 900,000 brute Indian forces.

The house also condemned belligerent statements of India’s political and military leadership about AJK, and reaffirmed the resolve of the people of Pakistan and Kashmir to thwart any aggression from across the divide.

Earlier, in his brief extempore comments, PM Ilyas made it clear that all political parties in AJK were on one page with regard to the issue of Kashmir.

“There should be no politics on Kashmir, we all have the same viewpoint on the issue,” he said, suggesting that the ruling and opposition parties should jointly hold a march in Brussels to convey a strong message to the world that Kashmiris were not dumb driven cattle.

This special session was an attempt to do damage control in the wake of approval of a shoddily drafted resolution by the AJK Assembly on March 29, which had called for “establishment of a corridor of Azad Kashmir (sic) on the pattern of Kartarpur.”

Moved by PTI’s Javed Butt, it was routinely passed by the house without holding any debate on it. However, the reaction and ramifications that followed the impulsive move shook the entire leadership following which it was decided to pass a joint resolution at a special session.

The initial proceedings of Wednesday’s session, presided over by speaker Chaudhry Anwarul Haq, were held in camera, during which the house suspended a rule and allowed Mr Butt to withdraw his controversial resolution.

Sources told Dawn that the semi-literate PTI lawmaker, elected from a Kashmiri refugees’ constituency in Rawalpindi, maintained on the occasion that the withdrawn resolution “did not reflect his actual feelings.”

Earlier, in his address during the special session, President Mahmood reiterated that global peace and stability hinged on the peaceful settlement of the lingering Kashmir dispute, something he said the global community should not overlook.

“Many world powers have their stakes in this [South Asian] region which is home to two nuclear powers that have previously fought three wars with conventional weaponry over the unresolved issue of Kashmir. The fourth war runs the risk of employing the nuclear arsenal and that will be devastating for the whole world,” he said.

The president also made it clear “on behalf of Kashmiris on both sides” that they would not accept division of their motherland at any cost.

“Let me declare that Kashmiris have not rendered unprecedented sacrifices for conversion of the Line of Control into a permanent border as is being suggested by some negotiators and mediators.”

He also called upon the international community not to attend any summits or conferences or make investments in occupied Kashmir unless India granted the oppressed Kashmiri people their internationally acknowledged right to self-determination.

Published in Dawn, April 6th, 2023