MUZAFFARABAD, Aug 3: A Norway-based civil society activist of Kashmiri origin has cogently supported the UN Security Council resolutions on Kashmir, asking the pro-freedom people not to take them for granted.

Speaking at a Meet the press programme here the other day, Sardar Ali Shahnawaz, executive director Kashmiri-Scandinavian Council, stressed that the UNSC resolutions had not become ‘stale or obsolete’ and instead were an effective tool to advance the Kashmir cause.

According to him, human rights violations were occurring in various regions across the globe but Kashmir's position was different because the world body had adopted resolutions for its settlement.

“Europe wants to see the UN strong and powerful and we tell them that the resolutions of the same institution are being blatantly disregarded by India which is seeking membership of the Security Council,” he said.

Mr Shahnawaz, who is also adviser to the president of Norway's Christian Democratic Party, was of the view that those taking the UNSC resolutions as outdated were indirectly helping India, though unintentionally.

“Let me make it clear that the UNSC resolutions on Kashmir are the biggest hurdle in India's bid for SC membership and we must not create any facilities for India in this regard,” he said.

The UNSC resolutions, he pointed out, had also laid the basis for formation of parliamentary Kashmir committees in some of the powerful world capitals.

Claiming that Norway was the only country after Pakistan which openly supported the UNSC resolutions on Kashmir, Mr Shahnawaz said the 22-member Kashmir committee in the Norwegian parliament, currently headed by the deputy speaker, was vigorously advancing the cause of Kashmiris.

He said the issue of unmarked graves in occupied Kashmir was also seriously taken up by the parliamentary Kashmir committee, asking the country's Foreign Ministry to pressure India for an impartial probe into the horrendous discovery.

Regarding the four-point proposal of President Pervez Musharraf “providing an ‘out of box’ solution of the Kashmir issue,” he said the All Parties Hurriyat Conference and the Kashmiri diaspora had supported the suggestion because it made the world believe that Pakistan was flexible and sincerely wanted to resolve this festering dispute.

He claimed that no Kashmiri considered the four-point proposal as an ultimate solution but a step towards it and an effort to break the status quo.

“It benefited us at the international level. It mounted pressure on India and exposed its unwillingness to settle the issue through peaceful means. By that way I take it as victory of Pakistan,” he said.

He said many people in the West questioned about Kashmir militancy and “we tell them it’s an indigenous movement and could come to an end only after India fulfilled the promise it had made to the people of Kashmir long ago.”