MPA says US legislators pledged support to Kashmir cause

TIMERGARA: Member Provincial Assembly (MPA) Dr Sumaira Shams on Friday said that legislators in the United States (US) have assured that they would play a role in resolving the Kashmir issue.

Talking to The News on her arrival from a 3-week official visit to the US on the invitation of the US State Department, she said the US legislators especially congresswomen evinced a keen interest in playing a role in resolving the Kashmir issue.

Dr Sumaira Shams was a part of a five-member delegation of Pakistan women lawmakers who visited the US on the invitation of the State Department from September 14 to October 5. The delegation met senators and congresswomen in Washington DC and stressed the US parliamentarians role in resolving Kashmir issue, she said and added the delegation informed the US legislators how the Afghan war had directly affected Pakistan, especially Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

She said the delegates apprised the US politicians of the human rights violations in Indian held Kashmir. “I was expecting that issues of women would be of different nature in the US for being a developed country but amazingly all issues faced by women in the US were the same that we face in our country, including domestic violence, harassment, early age marriage, unequal wages, those related to service and many others,” she said.

The lawmaker claimed that in many fields Pakistani women were in a leading position for example in the 350-members National Assembly in Pakistan there were 60 women lawmakers members but in the US Congress with a total of 535 members, there were only 20 women.