Daily Times

ISLAMABAD: National Assembly’s Special Committee on Kashmir Chairman Fazlur Rehman is not happy with the prime minister as the latter did not take the cleric’s consent before sending as many as 24 lawmakers abroad to highlight the Kashmir issue.

Sources told Daily Times that Fazl, who is also the chief of his own faction of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam, would head a meeting of the committee on Tuesday at Parliament House.

Reporters would not be allowed to cover the in-camera meeting. Advisor to Prime Minister on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz has been requested to brief the committee on latest situation of Indian-held Kashmir (IHK). Aziz would brief the session of the committee about Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif’s recent address to the United Nation General Assembly and his address to Non-Aligned Movement, sources told. On one hand, the human rights violations in Indian-held Kashmir are on the rise, but on the other hand, the committee under the cleric was in the deepest slumber.

Unfortunately, the cleric and his committee failed to issue a single statement to condemn Indian atrocities. On Tuesday, a sub committee’s report would be discussed in the meeting that was formed under Pakistan Muslim League-Zia lawmaker Ijazul Haq, sources said.

Sources added that Fazl would raise the issue of the special envoys sent to various European and Middle Eastern countries to highlight the Kashmir issue. The cleric is not happy with these envoys as he was not consulted by the prime minister as Fazl wanted to send his ‘chosen’ ones abroad but he was ignored, sources concluded.