The prime minister office issued a list on August 27 carrying names of 22 parliamentarians who will be sent to selective countries as special envoys to plead Pakistan’s stand on the Kashmir issue.

Among them is Nawab Ali Wassan, a Sindh-based member of the National Assembly. He is said to be close to the ruling PPP in the province. According to the notification issued by the PM office, he will be visiting Moscow.

In a recent nine-minute interview in a current affairs talk show on a private television channel, which has become viral on the social media, he talks about the unrest in Indian-held Kashmir. He seems ignorant about Chief Minister Mehbooba Mufti and Kashmiri freedom fighters. "I do not know much about Mehbooba Mufti, if you could enlighten me, I would be able to say something," he utters when asked about the politics of Mufti in the valley.

Announcement of the envoys, considered more of a cosmetic measure, came seven weeks after the current wave of resistance in the valley, followed by Pakistan’s decision to raise the Kashmir issue in the upcoming meeting of the United Nation’s General Assembly.

The envoys represent different political parties but the majority of them are from the ruling PML-N. Some of them are veteran politicians and have experience of foreign affairs. These names include Maulana Fazlur Rehman, JUI-F chief and chairman of National Assembly’s Kashmir Committee who will visit Saudi Arabia; Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed, who will be going to the UN; and Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtiar, former Minister of State for Foreign Affairs in the Musharraf government, who will go to China.

Others include, Raza Hayat Hiraj, Ejazul Haq, Lt General (R) Abdul Qayyum, Awais Ahmad Khan Leghari, and Pervaiz MaIik.

The envoys with least experience in the field include Uzair Malik, Sumaira Malik, Alam Dad Laleka, Junaid Anwar Chaudhry, Major (r) Tahir Iqbal, Muhammad Afzal Khokhar, Mohsin Shahnawaz Ranjha, Qaiser Sheikh, Shezra Mansab Ali Khan, Abdul Rehman Khan Kanju, Ayesha Raza Farooq, and Rana Muhammad Afzal MNA.

A spokesperson of the PM announced the list isn’t complete, "The Speaker’s Office is supposed to send more names of parliamentarians who would be added to the list."

The PM’s list came after resentment among Kashmiri leaders from Pakistan who think that Pakistan’s response to the current oppression in the valley is unsatisfactory.

"It’s very good that the government has announced to send special envoys to different parts of the world to highlight the Kashmir issue. But this is not enough. Pakistan should go beyond this lip service. The response of Pakistan is positive but limited only to statements," a representative of a Kashmiri group tells TNS, adding, "We expect Pakistan to take hard stance or at least pull their mission from India to show a strong gesture and solidarity with the freedom fighting Kashmiris."

He says unfortunately it is also true that the appointed envoys do not know the history of the issue and seem unprepared to respond to questions, which is embarrassing.

"We believe that parliamentary delegations are not the solution. These are cosmetic measures at a time when the world is already getting together in General Assembly session of the UN and Pakistan will have the opportunity to tackle the issue in a loud way and mobilise the whole world. Then why waste money on these travels?" he asks. Unless Pakistan comes out of the box, there is no hope that it will achieve anything, he adds.

Interestingly, a special committee on Kashmir already exists in the parliament. The current special committee on Kashmir was formed in 2013. It has representation of eight major political parties and is supported by a 20-member secretariat in the National Assembly with Maulana Fazlur Rehman as chairman. He is granted the status of a federal minister.

The objectives of the Kashmir committee include ‘monitoring of human rights violations and atrocities being committed by the Indian Forces in the occupied Jammu and Kashmir’ and ‘increase awareness within, as well as outside the country about the Kashmir issue.’

A prime objective of the Kashmir Committee is to ‘mobilise world opinion in support of right to self-determination of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.’ The committee has met only thrice since the new unrest in Indian Kashmir.

The Pakistan Institute of Legislative Development and Transparency (Pildat), a non-government organisation working on electoral issues, has expressed concerns on the parliamentary envoys. "The PM should have assigned this task to the President, the government and members of Azad Jammu & Kashmir Assembly. It would have made sense," says Ahmed Bilal Mahboob, who heads Pildat. He also questions the justification behind prime minister’s nomination of parliamentarians as special envoys in the presence of a parliamentary special committee on Kashmir.

A few days ago after the announcement of the envoys, members of civil society also gathered outside the National Press Club Islamabad and questioned the credentials and efficacy of the announced mission. The protesters expressed solidarity with the people of Indian-held Kashmir who are being subjected to brutalities by the Indian security forces.

"What purpose will be served by the envoys’ visits to Africa and Brazil when these countries have nothing to do with the Kashmir issue," said Asma Jahangir, human rights defender, while addressing the demo. "The government is not taking Kashmir issue that seriously. We support Kashmiri youth’s freedom movement."

The death toll due to Indian atrocities had gone up to 95 till last week. More than 7,000 people were reported injured -- many critically. The unrest sparked in the valley with the killing of young freedom fighter, Burhan Wani, on July 8.

"The international environment is not conducive to persuasion over Kashmir right now. Pakistan needs to demonstrate its complete disassociation with jihadi terrorist groups. And delegations like these will be nothing more than junkets," Husain Haqqani, former Pakistani ambassador to the US said recently. He was of the view that last year when PM Nawaz Sharif raised the Kashmir issue at the UN, it was big news in the Pakistani media but his speech was not reported in the international media.