Daily Times

LAHORE: Azad Jammu Kashmir Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider has said that India staged incidents like Pathankot in Indian Punjab and Uri in the disputed state of Jammu Kashmir to avoid comprehensive dialogue, agreed during a meeting between Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and India’s Minister for External Affairs Sushma Swaraj in Islamabad in December 2015.

In a joint press conference along with Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz, the visiting Indian minister had confirmed that comprehensive dialogue – instead of composite dialogue – would be held in which all outstanding issues including Jammu Kashmir will be discussed.

On Thursday, addressing lawyers at the Lahore High Court Bar Association, the Kashmiri prime minister said that India staged the Uri incident itself to sabotage the high-profile visit of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to the United Nations as it had staged similar incidents in the past too. He said that the Uri town near the Line of Control was a well-guarded area, as India had deployed a large number of military troops in the disputed state.

“I do not think that anybody would have crossed the Line of Control and attacked the Indian forces in Uri,” he said, and condemned armed actions and atrocities of the Indian ‘security’ forces in the disputed state. “Whatever is happening in Jammu Kashmir is shameful,” he said. He also said that India was promoting anarchy in Pakistan to sabotage the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), a game-changing mega project.

Prime Minister Haider informed the gathering that the independence of Jammu Kashmir and good governance were top priorities of his government in the state and every possible step would be taken in this regard. About the state’s affairs, he said that recommendations had been forwarded to the Pakistan government to amend the state’s constitution of 1974 and it had been demanded that Gilgit Baltistan region not be made a province (of Pakistan).

He said that declaring Gilgit Baltistan a province would weaken Kashmiris’ case at the international level. “It would create various issues for Pakistan which would benefit India,” he pointed out. He also said that it does not mean that people of Gilgit Baltistan should not be given their rights. They (Gilgit Baltistan people) should be given rights and they should be given status like Azad Jammu Kashmir, he told the lawyer community.

Addressing a luncheon reception, hosted by Kashmiri community, Prime Minister Farooq Haider vowed to transform the region into a real social-welfare state through revolutionary changes. “Developing road infrastructure, increasing literacy rate, providing better health facilities are our priorities,” he added. The Kashmiri government would utilise all available resources to generate maximum revenue to run the state’s affairs on modern lines, he said.

He informed the community that the people in the other part of the state did not want a war with India but a peaceful solution to the Kashmir issue. He eulogised Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif for boldly and skillfully highlighting the Kashmir issue during his UN General Assembly address. “By presenting our case at the highest forum, Nawaz Sharif won our hearts,” he said.

He was highly appreciative of the development being carried out in the Punjab province and said the leadership of Chief Minister Shehbaz Sharif had made the province a role model for others. He told the audience that he would implement the reforms the Punjab government carried out in education, health and other important sectors in Azad Jammu Kashmir.

Minister for Information and Tourism Mushtaq Minhas, Punjab Minister for Education Rana Mashhood Ahmed Khan, Begum Zakia Shahnawaz, Health Adviser Khawaja Salman Rafique, MPA Ghazali Saleem Butt, MLA Nasir Hussain Dar, Kiran Dar and political workers and Kashmiri people also attended the event. Later on, the prime minister visited Jamia Ashrafia and called on Maulana Fazlur Rahim, the chief of the Islamic seminary.

Prime Minister Farooq Haider met Punjab Assembly Speaker Rana Muhammad Iqbal at his chamber. The two leaders discussed important matters especially with regard to Kashmiris’ struggle for independence. The visiting leader vowed to bring radical change in the lifestyle of the Kashmiri people in the state. The speaker observed that Kashmiri people could not be deprived of their right to independence.