Daily Times

President Dr Arif Alvi Wednesday said Pakistan’s actions, such as the unveiling of a new political map and renaming the Kashmir Highway as ‘Srinagar Highway’ on the eve of Youm-e-Istehsal, are aimed at highlighting the Jammu and Kashmir dispute at the international level.

“Unveiling of a new map by Pakistan is symbolic and such actions are a reiteration by Pakistan as it presents its case on Kashmir before the world,” the president told a special session of Senate. He demanded that the Indian government must immediately cease inhuman brutalities and aggression against the innocent Kashmiris and leave the illegal occupation of Jammu and Kashmir as the Kashmiri people were fed up with the unending torture and oppression.

The president read out a set of demands, including immediate end of military siege of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), removal of curbs on communication and movement, ending of gross human rights violations, lifting of social media and Internet blackout, and avoiding imposition of relentless curfew. He demanded that all the detained Kashmiri leadership, confined either inside their homes or jailed, should be immediately set free with political activities revived. Rape against women and cruelty against minors should be stopped, he added.

Separately, while addressing the participants of a rally taken out here in solidarity with residents of the occupied valley of Kashmir, the president said, “India’s high-ups made many promises to Kashmiris and Pakistan but none of those promises were fulfilled.” “They signed the Simla Agreement with us in which it was decided that [both countries] will hold bilateral dialogue, but to date, India has refused to hold talks. Whenever the issue was raised on multilateral forums, India made excuses saying that it was a bilateral issue but they are not ready to talk.”

The president also recited a verse of Allama Iqbal to explain the situation in IIOJK. He said the Indian leadership always stepped back from its promises and agreements, and failed to honour its commitment made with the UNSC to implement its resolutions. “All the pacts and promises were blatantly violated, Geneva Convention over child rights was also violated. India never held talks under the Simla Agreement of 1973 to discuss the Kashmir issue and stymied all efforts for peaceful resolution of the issue on the pretext of terming it a bilateral issue,” he said.