LAHORE: Sardar Mohammad Ibrahim Khan, President, Azad Kashmir Government, here today [Feb 12], appealed to the people of Pak­istan and Jammu and Kashmir State to “take the matter of plebiscite in a spirit of jihad and self-sacrifice”. … In an interview … [he] said that after the cease-fire people had relapsed into a complacent state of mind towards the gigantic problem of the plebiscite before them. This fight was going to be so momentous as to affect the future course of history and the fate of world Muslims as a whole, he added.

Of the UNCIP he said: “The Azad Kashmir Government are glad that the UNCIP is back in the Indo-Pakistan sub-continent to start in right earnest its work about the plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir. …[”]

[Regarding statements in the Press giving rise to uncertainties about the plebiscite, he said]:[“ … I categorically and unequivocally reiterate the policy of the Azad Kashmir Government and also of the All-Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference, that we stand for a free and impartial plebiscite. We shall be bound by the verdict of the people if the plebiscite shall be certified to be free and fair.” — News agencies

Published in Dawn, February 13th, 2024