KP Assembly condemns atrocities in Indian Held Kashmir

PESHAWAR: Khyber Pakhtunkhwa Assembly on Thursday passed a unanimous resolution condemning Indian atrocities and change of the status of Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

The joint resolution signed by the opposition and treasury members and moved by Information Minister Shaukat Ali Yousafzai and Maulana Lutfur Rahman of Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (JUI-F) said: “This august House condemns the shameful act of the Indian government of changing the special status of occupied Kashmir by repealing Article 370 and 35-A of its constitution to divide the state into two parts, deployment of an extra 70,000 army troops and imposing curfew through section-144 for an indefinite period. “The Indian government has been violating human rights by putting behind bars and house arrest of 90-year old Kashmiri leader Syed Ali Gillani, Yasin Malik, Mir Waiz Umer Farooq and other senior leaders.

“The Indian army has made life miserable for Kashmiri people and is also constantly violating the Line of Control to instigate Pakistan and create tension for the residents across the Line of Control. Following the Indian act, the federal government succeeded in the convening of the UN Security Council meeting and raising the Kashmir issue on international forums.

“Therefore, this august House recommends to the federal government to further intensify efforts for fighting the Kashmir issue in the United Nations, Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), besides other regional and world forums, to expose Indian violations of human rights and the UN charter.”

Earlier, Speaker Mushtaq Ahmad Ghani announced that like other people of the country the members of the provincial assembly would show solidarity with the Kashmiri people by standing on the Khyber Road for half an hour. He said the members led by parliamentary leaders of all political parties in the House would leave the Assembly Hall at 11:50 am to reach Khyber Road where they will stand from 12 noon to 12:30 pm to express solidarity with the people of Indian-occupied Kashmir who are facing Indian security forces’ atrocities.

He asked all the members to ensure their participation in the event. Speaking on the issue, opposition leader Akram Khan Durrani said that Pakistan has been isolated due to the federal government’s failure and non-seriousness on various issues. He questioned: “Where is our foreign policy and relations with the world states? Our prime minister celebrated shaking hands with US President Donald Trump, saying he was feeling the joy he had felt after winning the World Cricket Cup, but he should look at Modi’s meeting and exchanging of pleasantries with Trump and the body language of both the leaders.” Accepting President Trump’s mediation would be nothing more than accepting Modi’s decisions, he warned.

“How the US can be trusted keeping in view its questionable mediation on Palestine and Israel, Jordan and Syrian conflicts,” he posed a question. He reminded that the US is now holding talks with those Afghan Taliban leaders who were handed over By Pakistan to the Americans. Criticising the federal and provincial governments for non-seriousness, Akram Durrani said how the opposition could observe protest on the call of the prime minister who did not bother to sit with the opposition leaders and take them into confidence on vital issues like Kashmir.

The opposition parties would and have been expressing solidarity with the Kashmiris since long and had always supported their just cause of freedom from Indian occupation, he added. Sardar Hussain Babak of ANP, Ahmad Kundi of PPP and JUI-F’s Naeema Kishwar also lashed out at the government for its failure on the Kashmir issue and called for revisiting of the foreign policy.

They said that Pakistan was facing isolation due to the ‘flawed’ foreign policy and even the Muslim states which the government claimed to be close friends were giving their highest civil awards to India’s Prime Minister Narendra Modi instead of raising voice on the Indian atrocities in occupied Kashmir. The opposition MPAs said the prime minister was already in the knowledge what Modi was planning, but he neither took the opposition and the nation into confidence nor undertook timely diplomacy for foiling Indian designs. “Now he is raising hue and cry after losing ground,” one of the opposition lawmakers argued.

In his reply, PTI’s Shaukat Yousafzai said the government’s focus was on Jammu and Kashmir and it was its success to internationalise the Kashmir issue for the first time. “It was Imran Khan who used to call for talking to the US president on equal footing and he managed to do this as prime minister. It’s time the whole nation including the opposition forged unity in its ranks and expressed solidarity with their Kashmiris brethren,” he said.

He lauded the media’s role in highlighting the Kashmir issue properly and diverting world attention towards the situation in the Indian-held Jammu and Kashmir.

The House unanimously adopted another resolution moved by Rehana Yasmin demanding the establishment of a dispensary in the premises of the provincial assembly on the pattern of the National Assembly.