Plebiscite is the key problem in Kashmir: Shehryar Afridi

During the meeting, the APHC leader apprised the Chairman about the latest situation in the Indian held Kashmir particularly regarding the Human Rights violation and the resistance movement against the continued repression of the Indian Armed forces. He further said that All Party Hurriyat Conference also boycotted the election 2019 as a principle policy of the Kashmiris that elections are not an alternative of the plebiscite guaranteed by the Security Council resolutions seventy-two years ago, therefore, the present general elections are also irrelevant for the Kashmiris. The delegation also congratulated him on his unanimous election for the position of the Chairman Parliamentary Committee on Kashmir and also expressed their high hopes to carry out the onerous task of the Parliamentary Kashmir Committee. 

The Hon. Chairman Parliamentary Committee on Kashmir said that we reiterate our unwavering moral, diplomatic and political support to the people of Jammu and Kashmir in their just struggle for their inalienable right to self-determination. It is only through the implementation of the United Nations Security Council Resolutions that the Kashmir issue will be amicably resolved. He further said that the right of self-determination is a revered principle of international law but even after more than 72 years this fundamental right is being denied to the people of Kashmir despite the fact that this right was promised to them by the UN in its numerous resolutions.

While praising the courage and firmness of the oppressed people of Jammu and Kashmir who have continued their long and strenuous struggle despite all odds. In the course, they have undergone unimaginable suffering and inhuman treatment by the occupational forces to crush their will.

The Chairman also referred to the reports of the Human Right Committee of the European Parliament, OIC Human Rights Commission, and the report of the UN Human Rights Council last year in which it was recommended to constitute a fact-finding Commission to further investigate the Human Rights violation in Indian Held Kashmir without any further delay. We also urge the international community to wake up on the Kashmir issue and take notice of the gross Human Rights violations occurring in the Occupied Jammu and Kashmir. Now, it is the responsibility of the international community particularly the P-5 countries to fulfill its promise to the Kashmiris of granting them the right of self-determination through a free and fair plebiscite in the light of the UN resolutions. The international community must not compromise the principles of international law and canons of justice for the sake of their economic interest in India. There is also a dire need for the world to demonstrate that there is a difference between the struggle for freedom and of terrorism.

The Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Kashmir said that Pakistan is committed to building a peaceful neighborhood as it is the only way forward for durable peace in the region and does not need war as articulated by the Prime Minister in his speech in Joint Session of the Parliament last month. He further said that the right of self-determination to the people of

Jammu and Kashmir is the birthright of the Kashmiris as enunciated by several resolutions passed in the Security Council.

The plebiscite is the key/panacea of all problems in Kashmir. Moreover, it is now the responsibility of the international community to activate multilateral diplomacy for the implementation of the UN Security Council resolutions on the dispute or find new ways to explore common grounds for a win-win/ amicable solution acceptable to all stakeholders. In the past decade, the freedom movement in occupied Kashmir has assumed a more assertive and aggressive approach, especially by the youth as approach to confronting the brutalities and atrocities being committed by the occupying Indian forces. Being the torchbearer/ custodian/ promoters of human rights the world community (big powers P-5) must see the Kashmir as a matter of human rights, self-determination, and international humanitarian law and not through the prism of realpolitik.

Humiliating Kashmiri people every day is now, unfortunately, become the norm of the occupational forces contrary to the arrangement agreed in the United Nation’s regarding the peaceful resolution of the Kashmir dispute. We strongly condemn all black laws enforced by the occupational forces for crackdowns, making arrests, issuing summons, and sending political and religious leaders and cadres to jails to suppress the voice of the people of Kashmir. We also appeal to the world community to look into the reports of the OIC Human Rights Commission, European Union Committee for Human Rights and last year (2018) the United Nations Human Rights Commission issued a comprehensive report about the Human Rights violation in the Indian held Kashmir which needs further implementation particularly regarding the constitution of a Commission to investigate the Human Rights violation in India held Kashmir. He also strongly condemned the attitude of Indian authorities, the way they are mishandling the Hurriyat leaders like Malik Yasin who is a prisoner of conscience and being treated as a criminal.