New York: A webinar was held in New York to commemorate the Kashmiris’ right to self-determination.
In his key-note address, Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Munir Akram, said that this was to mark the fifth of January 1949, when the UN Commission for Pakistan and India (UNCIP) adopted the resolution, promising the right of self-determination to the people of Jammu and Kashmir through the holding of an impartial plebiscite under auspices of the United Nations.
This resolution and subsequent resolutions of the Security Council concerning the final disposition of Jammu and Kashmir and the provisions of the resolution were accepted by all parties to the conflict. They are binding on both Pakistan and India. Unfortunately, over the course of the last 73 years, India has failed to implement these resolutions of the Security Council. First, by resorting to various forms of obfuscation, and deviousness and delay, and later, through a campaign of massive oppression which in the course of a 10-year period, from 1989 to 1999, killed over 100,000 Kashmiris and brought untold suffering to Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
The latest ploy by India is to impose its unilateral measures from 5 August 2019 when it sought to obliterate its special status. These acts were aimed at destroying the state of Kashmiris’ distinct identity to induct 900,000 troops to oppress the freedom struggle of its people; to change the demography of Jammu and Kashmir; and transform it from a Muslim majority state to a minority territory by the Indian government.
Ambassador Akram further emphasized that Pakistan was of course, entirely, and fully committed to the freedom struggle of the Kashmiri people from the outset and since five August 2019. Pakistan has also put together a detailed dossier, which lists over 3400 specific crimes committed by Indian forces in IIOJK and have called for the persons responsible for these crimes to be held accountable.
Ambassador Akram added that the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan, has set out the conditions for the resumption of dialogue with India. And the conditions are three: First, Halt in India’s human rights violations in IIOJK. Secondly, the immediate cancellation of all the unilateral measures taken by India post August 2019; and third, reverse the process of demographic change in Jammu and Kashmir.
Dr Ghulam Nabi Fai, Secretary General of World Kashmir Awareness Forum (WKAF), said that Kashmir was the oldest unresolved international conflict still pending on the agenda of the Security Council. And that Kashmir was the only international dispute where the solution of the conflict – right to self-determination – was suggested by the parties themselves, India and Pakistan.
Dr Fai cited the example by quoting Mohandas Karamchand Gandhi, who said on 29 July 1947 in Delhi, “I am not going to suggest to the Maharaja (Ruler of Kashmir) to accede to India and not to Pakistan. The real sovereign of the state are the people. The ruler is a servant of the people.” “Kashmir would belong to the Kashmiris.” Fai also quoted columnist Swaminathan Aiyar of New Delhi wrote in The Times of India “We promised Kashmiris a plebiscite six decades ago. Let us hold one now, and give them three choices: independence, union with Pakistan, and union with India. Let Kashmiris decide the outcome, not the politicians and armies of India and Pakistan.” Web Desk
