It is usually a worthwhile experience to visit a place with a different culture. I witnessed the same when I visited Azad Kashmir last week. Kashmir is an issue and a subject very close to my heart.
There are many reasons. In my student activism days when I was one of the key office bearers of the All Pakistan Muslim League (APML) heading the All Pakistan Muslim Student Federation (APMSF), I used to promote President Musharraf’s 4 point agenda on Kashmir and when I joined academia, being a Research Associate first and lecturer later I was able to read books, write conference report and design a course on Kashmir and Palestine conflict at the Department of Political Science and International Relations (DPSIR), University of Management and Technology (UMT).
Eventually, I developed a passion for this subject to the extent that now I intend to do my PhD on one of the aspects of this issue. When we reached Muzafarabad and LOC, it was a very mixed feeling. It was emotional and nostalgic at the same time. I was able to relate to a lot of things I read and teach to my students and I said to myself that this is the place and these are the people for whom we have fought wars in the last 70 years. Its beauty also stunned me and it is for sure a land worth calling Janat Nazeer. It was so fascinating to see distinct features, a unique dialect, the soothing Kashmiri language, hospitality of Kashmiris.
Resilient Kashmiris have not given up their desire for freedom.
Kashmiris are beautiful, mehman-nawaz people I must say. There are a few observations I made out of the brief interaction I had with Kashmiris in Keran and Upper Neelum. Many of them are shepherds and their livelihood depends on tourism, dry fruits, shawls etc. If the Kashmir issue is resolved, economic activity will multiply and bring improvement in their lives.
First, the desire for freedom is still alive, they are still motivated to fight for it just at the right time. They have not given up the will to fight. Their Kashmiri identity is intact and they own it wholeheartedly.
Secondly, they have respect for the Pakistan army and they will fight alongside it for their freedom when needed. There seems to be an absence of popular or mainstream indigenous political parties.
Securitization of the region may be attributed as the reason. I inquired about the political leadership in Pakistan in various eras and the impact they had on the peace initiatives with India and the resolution of Kashmir dispute. I found their opinion to be divided in favour of former Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and late President Pervez Musharraf. There are reasons for it which they mentioned. In Nawaz Sharif’s tenure, families from Illegally Indian Occupied Kashmir were able to unite here at AJK and there was bus diplomacy when Prime Minister Vajpayee came to Lahore on a bus through the Wahga Border and later visited Minar-e-Pakistan and later President Musharraf’s tenure there was a 4-point agenda also known as Musharraf formula which was demilitarization on both sides, line of control as a soft border to allow visa-free movement and trade on both sides, maximum self governance by the Kashmiris and joint mechanism by India and Pakistan for 15 years.
This all reinforced my belief that even if we have to wait for a decade, we will fight for the Kashmir cause because the resilient Kashmiris have not given up their desire for freedom but not until we have political stability and economic prosperity. So to avoid violence, to improve the lives of Kashmiris, and for sustainable peace in the region, all three stakeholders need to find a political solution where the centrality of the Kashmiri people is established.
The writer’s area of interest is the Kashmir conflict. He is an academic and can be reached at [email protected]