MUZAFFARABAD: Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said on Sunday that Delhi would not be able to suppress the voice of Kashmiris by holding a meeting of tourism officials from G20 in Srinagar, the capital of India-held Kashmir.

“It is not possible for India to play an important role in the world by violating the UN resolutions,” he told reporters after he landed in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) on a three-day visit.

He arrived here to join the Kashmiris in their protest against the G20 huddle in India-held Kashmir from Monday (today) in sheer disregard for international laws.

Mr Bhutto-Zardari, who heads the Pakistan Peoples Party, was received at the helipad by the party’s regional president Chaudhry Muhammad Yasin. Mr Yasin’s predecessor Chaudhry Latif Akbar, who is still holding the office of the leader of opposition, and some other PPP lawmakers, including minister without portfolio Faisal Mumtaz Rathore, were also present.

FM arrives in AJK on three-day visit as India set to hold international moot in held Srinagar

Talking to a group of media persons at the helipad, Mr Bhutto-Zardari said the AJK government had invited him to address the highest representative forum of the liberated territory at a time when India was holding a controversial event in the occupied territory.

“Those who think that by organising a conference they can suppress the voice of [the people of] occupied Kashmir are mistaken. We will prove them wrong,” he said. “I believe that when a country takes a step like that India has taken, their real face comes forth in front of the world,” he added.

He confirmed that he would also attend a protest rally in Bagh on Tuesday to express solidarity with the Kashmiri people.

Bagh would go to a by-election on June 8 in a constituency that fell vacant after the disqualification of former AJK premier Sardar Tanveer Ilyas on April 11.

It was widely believed that selecting Bagh for a public meeting of Mr Bhutto-Zardari, apparently in connection with the Kashmir issue, was linked with the by-election because the local PPP leaders assumed it could pay them the desired dividends.

The PPP, its ally PML-N in the coalition government and the opposition PTI are the three main parties contesting the by-election.

Later, Mr Bhutto-Zardari held a meeting with a delegation of post-1989 migrants from occupied Kashmir, who were earlier scheduled to call on him on Monday morning.

The delegation members briefed him on the situation prevailing in India-held territory in the context of their personal observations and information.

According to an officially released schedule, on Monday, before the foreign minister’s departure to the Assembly building, AJK Prime Minister Chaudhry Anwarul Haq would host him a luncheon. Later, the foreign minister would address the assembly’s special session.

Political sources told Dawn that Mr Bhutto-Zardari is the first federal minister to address the AJK Assembly; earlier, this privilege was restricted only to the head of states and governments in Pakistan.

The Assembly session, most likely to be presided over by the acting speaker from PTI Chaudhry Riaz Gujjar, may also witness an interesting situation, as PTI was reportedly contemplating raising the issue of the office of the leader of the opposition being held by the PPP while simultaneously being a key constituent of the coalition government.

After the assembly session, Mr Bhutto-Zardari would hold a press talk at the adjacent building of the Planning and Development Department. He would later fly to Bagh the same afternoon to address a public meeting on the premises of an educational institution on Tuesday.

Meanwhile, a protest rally would be held in Burhan Wani Chowk of Muzaffarabad on Monday to condemn the G20 huddle.

The main organiser of the rally is Pasban-i-Hurriyat Jammu Kashmir, an organisation of post-1989 migrants from occupied Kashmir, which has earlier organised a series of 16 rallies in as many cities and towns of AJK as an awareness campaign.

However, the government departments concerned would also make their contribution in this regard. The rally is likely to be addressed by the AJK premier, and Qamar Zaman Kaira, the adviser to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

Shaukat Nawaz Mir, president of the Markazi Anjuman-i-Tajran Muzaffarabad, has announced that the traders in the state capital would keep their shutters down as a mark of condemnation of India’s repressive measures in the occupied territory, including holding G20 events.

Similar protest rallies have also been planned in other cities and towns in AJK.

Published in Dawn, May 22nd, 2023