Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: Senate Chairman Raza Rabbani on Friday said that there was a need to reassess the ground realities for a fresh and a comprehensive Kashmir policy with a focus on sensitising the world to human rights violations by Indian forces and the Kashmiris’ right to self-determination.

“We have failed to sensitise the world to the real struggle of the Kashmiris, as at present this issue is considered a dispute between India and Pakistan,” he said while addressing an international seminar on Kashmir, organised by the Young Parliamentarian Forum in collaboration with the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and the Pakistan Institute of Parliamentary Services on Friday.

Rabbani said that the United Nations had become a redundant institution, which “only listens to the tunes of Western and American imperialism”. He said that the world community had become a silent spectator to the atrocities and human rights violations in Indian-held Kashmir (IHK). He said that hundreds of Kashmiris had lost their eyesight due to use of pullet guns, and there was “a silence of the graveyard” in the West.

Rabbani said that the torchbearers of human and fundamental rights “who teach us what democracy is and what the right to self-determination means” remained silent spectators as the people of Kashmir continued to suffer and be oppressed by Indian occupation forces. However, he said it was not something new. “Those international powers who gave us lessons of human rights protection are now blind and deaf. This cold-blooded attitude is not new to us.”

The Senate chairman that Western history was replete with incidents, which showed that even a minor act of violence and violation of fundamental rights was noticed if and only if it suited Western strategic interests.

“But where it did not suit their interests, like Kashmir, heaven may fall but they will be in silence of graveyard. These were contradictions that have continued since 1947. The world has remained a salient spectator to the violence in Indian-held Kashmir by the occupation forces. In 1947, India took over the princely states of Hyderabad and Junagarh on the basis that those were Hindu-majority areas and had a geographical connectivity with India, but in the case of Kashmir, where a majority population was Muslim and the ruler was a Hindu, the same principle did not apply.”

The Senate chairman said that the UN only takes interest in issues of countries who contributed to its funds and ensures implementation on resolutions related to them, like in the case of Iraq.

“We neither have respect for nor need an institution that cannot take care of our interests,” he maintained. He said that the same was the case as far as the Organisation of Islamic Countries (OIC) was concerned. Pakistan had always been on the forefront – risking its security – to support the Islamic countries whenever some issue emerged there, but most of the Muslim countries focused on their bilateral relations with India when Pakistan needed their support on the Kashmir issue. “We should be true to our case and look into the ground realities while formulating the new Kashmir policy.”

Rabbani suggested that parliament should take a lead in highlighting the Kashmir cause and sensitise the world though a proactive outreach. He said that the National Assembly speaker and the Senate chairman would highlight the issue with their counterparts in different countries, while the human right committees of both the Houses should take up the issue with their respective committees of parliaments across the world. “Same should be for the Foreign Affairs Committee of parliament – to sensitise the world to the violation of human rights and the Kashmiris’ right to self-determination.”

He observed that at present the Kashmir Committee consisted of only members of the National Assembly, and suggested that for making a true committee of parliament, it should have representation from Senate as well.

“We need to make the world aware of the fact that there was a similarity between the Kashmir and Palestine issue, as the India was trying to change the demographic profile of Indian-held Kashmir in a planned manner so as to convert the Muslim majority into a minority in Kashmir to win the case during some possibility of plebiscite in the occupied region.”

Rabbani also proposed that the Kashmiris should learn from the experiences of the Palestine Liberation Organisation and ensure their participation in international conferences and forums to present their case and distribute the relevant literature to highlight the rights violations in the occupied territory.

He also proposed initiating a signature campaign to sensitise the world to brutalities of Indian occupation forces.