Daily Times

On April 11, 2022, the Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) took over the reins of Pakistan, with Mian Shahbaz Sharif and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari as Prime Minister and Foreign Minister respectively.

It was expected that the new government would make headway on the issue of Kashmir. That is, the new government would speak to India about its highhandedness of changing the status of its part of Kashmir by revoking Article 370 on August 5, 2019. However, even after the elapse of four months, the incumbent government has not launched any diplomatic initiative on the Kashmir front to engage India, nor has the government raised the issue formally at any international forum including the United Nations. This is despite the fact that Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has so far attended multiple conferences abroad and visited several foreign countries. Unfortunately, nowhere has he talked about the Kashmir issue. Similarly, no statement of Hina Rabbani Khar, Minister of State for Foreign Affairs, on the Kashmir issue has attracted attention. Observing complete silence on the Kashmir issue has become the hallmark of the current government.

To recall, both Mian Shahbaz Sharif and Bilawal Bhutto Zardari owe much to the Kashmir issue. On July 2, 1972, Pakistan’s President, Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto, maternal grandfather of Bilawal Bhutto Zardari, signed the historical Simla Agreement with India’s Prime Minister Indra Gandhi. The peace treaty maintained that the dispute in Kashmir needed to be resolved through bilateral negotiations. The Simla agreement also established the Line of Control, which is respected by both Pakistan and India.

On February 21, 1999, in Lahore, Pakistan’s Prime Minister Mian Nawaz Sharif, brother of Mian Shahbaz Sharif, signed the Lahore Declaration with India’s Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee. The treaty reviewed that both countries would resolve all outstanding issues including the issue of Kashmir for forging an environment of peace and security as a supreme national interest in the region. Further, both countries would intensify their efforts to resolve the issue of Kashmir specifically. Through the declaration, both countries also announced to commit themselves not only to respect the principles and purposes of the Charter of the United Nations (UN) but also to implementing the Simla Agreement of 1972 in letter and spirit.

It is high time Pakistan knocked at the door of the UNSC to remind it of its commitment to determine the right of self-determination of the Kashmiris, as promised in UNSC Resolution 47.

The undertone of both the Simla Agreement of 1972 and the Lahore Declaration of 1999 was the Security Council (SC) Resolution 47 (adopted on April 21, 1948) was that the Kashmiris had a legitimate right to self-determination and that they would exercise the right through a plebiscite, which would be made possible by both Pakistan and India.

Soon after, the Constituent Assembly of India acknowledged that the final status of Kashmir was to be decided through a plebiscite and this was why it offered a temporary place to the Instrument of Accession in the Constitution of India for regulating federal relations with the princely state. That is, granting the temporary status was to wait for the plebiscite. Further, India’s Constituent Assembly also granted Kashmir a special status coupled with autonomy to respect the Instrument of Accession signed in October 1947.

In the Indian Constituent Assembly, for Kashmir, Gopalaswami Ayyangar presented a bill for the incorporation of a special constitutional provision later on called Article 370. On 17 October 1949, before moving the bill, Ayyangar declared the resolve of the Government of India to hold a plebiscite to ascertain the wishes of the Kashmiris. He said, “Again, the Government of India have committed themselves to the people of Kashmir in certain respects. They have committed themselves to the position that an opportunity would be given to the people of the State to decide for themselves whether they will remain with the [Federal] Republic or wish to go out of it. We are also committed to ascertaining this will of the people by means of a plebiscite provided that peaceful and normal conditions are restored and the impartiality of the plebiscite could be guaranteed.”

The statement indicated clearly that the accession was provisional subject to the final decision of the Kashmiris expressed through a plebiscite whenever the conditions got normal. The plebiscite would let Kashmir choose between two choices: staying with the Federal Republic of India or opting out of it. On January 26, 1950, the Dominion of India got transformed into the Federal Republic, as the Constitution of India came into force and, along with it, Article 370 became part of the Indian Constitution, and the State of Jammu and Kashmir became a unit of the new Republic of India.

Though some leaked information, it is known that, in 2019, during the three days (from July 21 to 23) official working visit of Pakistan’s former Prime Minister Imran Khan to the United States (US), the US authorities advised him to stay away from the internal happenings in Kashmir. It simply means that the US authorities knew what was about to happen in Kashmir. Pakistan’s Chief of the Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa and the then Director General of Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) Lieutenant General Faiz Hameed were also part of Pakistan’s delegation.

On August 5, 2019, through a Presidential Order, India revoked Article 370 and changed the status of its part of Kashmir. The Jammu and Kashmir Re-organisation Bill was also brought into force to change the status of Kashmir from one union territory to two separate union territories: the territory of Jammu and Kashmir and the union territory of Ladakh. The former territory would have a legislature whereas the latter territory would not have one.

It is high time Pakistan took the initiative to knock at the door of the UNSC to remind it of its commitment to determining the right of self-determination of the Kashmiris, as promised in UNSC Resolution 47. Pakistan should also remind India of its bilateral commitment under the Simla Agreement of 1972 and the Lahore Declaration of 1999 towards the Kashmir issue. Pakistan should also ask India officially to start negotiations on Kashmir. Observing silence is criminal to the cause of Kashmir.

The writer can be reached at qaisarrashid @yahoo.com