ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Thursday said the world needs to tell India “enough is enough” with regard to its policy towards the freedom movement in held Kashmir.
Addressing the inaugural ceremony of two-day international parliamentary seminar on Kashmir organized by the National Assembly Secretariat and Young Parliamentarians Forum in Islamabad Thursday, the Prime Minister called Jammu & Kashmir Pakistan’s “jugular vein”. He stressed that Jammu & Kashmir is an integral part of Pakistan’s identity.
The Prime Minister said our hearts beat and sink with our Kashmiri brethren.
“We share each moment of their pain and pleasures. We rejoice in their happiness and grieve in their gloom. Truth can’t be suppressed by bullets”, he added.
Mian Nawaz Sharif saluted the spirit and determination of the Kashmiri people for continuing inalienable right to self determination in the face of brutal repression. The youth of Kashmiri people are writing a new chapter in Kashmir history. He said the martyrdom of vibrant and Charismatic Kashmiri leader Burhan Wani has given a new turn to the Kashmiri movement. He regretted the Indian aggression on the innocent Kashmiri people in the wake of protests triggered by the martyrdom of Burhan Wani
The Prime Minister said supporting the Kashmiri struggle for their right to self determination is faith of every Pakistan.
“We know what they are going through. Pakistan will continue to extend moral, political and diplomatic support to the Kashmiri people in their indigenous struggle and continue to shake the conscience of the international community for their rights” the Prime Minister declared.
He said the peaceful protests that are continuing in occupied Kashmir show the will of the Kashmiri people. He said Pakistan will make sure that world knows what is happening in the occupied valley. He said Pakistan had sent special envoys to important countries to sensitize them about the situation in occupied Kashmir. He said that he personally raised the dispute in his address to the UN General Assembly session.
He said Pakistan desires good relations with all neighbors. We must cast aside the baggage of history and look to the future. We owe to the people the gift of progress and development that other regions are enjoying. One of the preconditions to achieve that end is the halt of ongoing oppression in occupied Kashmir.
Referring to the four points he presented before the UN, Nawaz Sharif once again urged the world community to make all out efforts for the realization of the promise it made to the Kashmiri people seventy years ago. He said the UNSC resolutions should be implemented and the continued sufferings of Kashmiri people must come to an end now.
He said the holding of the international seminar is a clear manifestation that Pakistani nation, parliament and the government will continue to extend all out support to their Kashmiri brethren.
Speaking on the occasion Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz said that Jammu and Kashmir dispute is a stigma on the international process. He said both Kashmir and Palestine are the two longest resolved items on the UNSC agenda.
He pointed out that three successive generations in Kashmir are fighting for their right to self determination with zeal and commitment. This relentless struggle is continuing despite the hardest measures adopted by India.
He said the presence of a large number of Indian troops in the occupied valley is a clear manifestation of Indian policy to use state terrorism to suppress the just struggle of Kashmiri people.
Sartaj Aziz said the post July second intifada in occupied Kashmir is unprecedented one in the sense that elements within India are also describing it as homegrown. He pointed out that Kashmiri youth are taking forward the freedom movement through the peaceful use of social media. A new generation from prosperous families is taking center stage at the movement.
Sartaj Aziz also called upon India to desist from steps that alter the demography of Kashmir. He said the dispute remains the core dispute between Pakistan and India. He said Pakistan is using every forum to raise the lingering dispute.
“Solution of the problem lies only in a fair and transparent plebiscite under the auspices of the United Nations” he declared.
Addressing the seminar, Speaker National Assembly Sardar Ayyaz Sadiq said the lingering Kashmir dispute must be solved at the earliest to avert further instability in the whole region.
Ayyaz Sadiq said the unabated genocide of Kashmiris at the hands of Indian Occupied Forces over the last seven decades has led to decline in population from seventy nine to sixty eight percent currently.
He said on one hand the blatant human rights violations continue to mar the norms of democracy and on the other hand the issue is continuously spilling regional instability.
The Speaker said the proponents of human rights across the world failed to raise the voice of Kashmiris and stop India from its barbarity.
He said the participation of Prime Minister and other dignitaries in the seminar is a reflection of Pakistan’s solidarity with the Kashmiri people and for their right to self determination.
In her welcome address, Secretary General of Young Parliamentarians Forum Shaza Fatima Khawaja deplored that the Indian authorities did not allow the participants from Occupied Kashmir are attending the seminar.
The seminar is being attended by over four hundred delegates, including Members of Parliament and experts from European Parliament, UK, Canada and North America.
The seminar will provide a platform to highlight the humanitarian crisis in Occupied Kashmir, where people demanding right of self-determination are being killed by Indian forces.
The seminar will have panel discussions on the role of United Nations (UN) and major powers in Kashmir dispute.
