Daily Times

Kashmir Solidarity Day was observed on February 5 wherein the people of Pakistan express solidarity with the people of Jammu and Kashmir in their struggle for the right of self-determination. To express solidarity, the National Assembly of Pakistan passed a unanimous resolution reiterating Pakistan’s political, diplomatic and moral support for the Kashmiri people. Rallies were staged in different cities and human chains were formed at points that connect Azad Kashmir to Pakistan.

Kashmir is the core issue between India and Pakistan, and has been the direct or indirect cause of crises and wars between the two states. Both states have employed a bilateral as well as multilateral approach to resolve the conflict. Bilateral dialogue as a conflict resolution tool usually works successfully between equally powerful states. In circumstances where one state is smaller and relatively less powerful, it becomes unable to make the more powerful state comply with the terms of agreement; this applies to India and Pakistan as well. India does not respect bilateral agreements when it comes to Pakistan.

As far as the multilateral approach is concerned, India approached the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on January 1, 1948 on the Kashmir issue. Kashmir is the oldest issue on the agenda of the UNSC. It passed a number of resolutions regarding the holding of a plebiscite in Kashmir but India’s non-compliance with UN resolutions has not triggered any forceful action from the world body. One of the reasons for this inaction may be that the resolutions on Kashmir were passed under chapter six of the UN Charter, which does not have any mandatory enforceability as opposed to the resolutions passed under chapter seven of the charter.

Apart from a case of self-determination, the Kashmir issue could have been addressed on the issue of grave human rights violations as a humanitarian crisis in former Yugoslavia and Rwanda received world attention during the 1990s. Since then, the principle of humanitarian intervention, which later on was redefined as ‘responsibility to protect’, has been used selectively in various states. The principle was applied to those states that had geo-strategic importance for the big powers while human rights violations in many other states go unnoticed. Kashmir is a real example of the indifference of world powers towards human rights violations across the board.

Another related aspect that is significant for Kashmir is its centrality to regional peace and stability. After the nuclearisation of South Asia in 1998, India and Pakistan have fought a limited war under the nuclear umbrella at Kargil in 1999. Limited wars have the potential to escalate and endanger peace and security. It is one of the objectives of the UN to preserve international peace and security but, unfortunately, Kashmir has not been given due consideration in this context either.

Though during the Cold War years Kashmir received prominence due to the extension of the superpower rivalry to South Asia and Pakistan’s being a part of the western alliance system, US policy makers did try to advance a solution to Kashmir to bring peace to South Asia but, as Bruce Riedel, advisor to former US presidents, has noted in his recent book, Avoiding Armageddon, American diplomats learnt from years of failure that “Kashmir was too difficult to deal with and therefore best ignored.” Likewise, the Soviet Union also mediated the Tashkent Agreement after the 1965 war between India and Pakistan but, with the end of the Cold War, Kashmir fell off the agenda of the major powers and became a forgotten conflict. Though President Bush and his successor President Obama recognised the centrality of Kashmir in the India-Pakistan conflict, they could not play any significant role except forcing the two states to start the dialogue process.

The sufferings of Kashmiris continue unabated and the most pressing questions about the future of Kashmir have yet to be addressed. How far will the Kashmiris’ struggle for their right of self-determination go unnoticed by the United Nations? And how far will human rights violations in Kashmir be ignored?

India’s desire to play a greater role in regional affairs, economic interdependence, India-Pakistan rapprochement, regional stability and viability of SAARC, all depend on the resolution of Kashmir. Indian evasion to discuss Kashmir has been delaying a resolution and creating uncertainty about the future working mechanism. Kashmir is part of the unfinished agenda of the partition of the Indian subcontinent and its resolution is the key to regional peace and stability.

The writer works at the Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI) and can be reached at samanz.pk@gmail.com