By Khizar Hayat Abbasi
Muzaffarabad: AJK President Sardar Muhammad Masood Khan has called for peaceful and lasting solution of Kashmir through dialogues and diplomatic means by involving India, Pakistan and people of Jammu and Kashmir.
Addressing Joint Session of AJK Legislative Assembly and Jammu and Kashmir Council on the eve of Kashmir Solidarity Day, he said peaceful settlement of Kashmir issue is imperative to save the region from devastation. He emphasized that our desire for peaceful settlement of the dispute and diplomacy should not be perceived as our weakness.
“We seek peaceful settlement of Kashmir issue and legitimate right of Kashmiri people to decide their future so that people of both India and Pakistan could achieve progress and prosperity,” President Masood said.
The region would have been peaceful and Kashmir a part of Pakistan if India had not occupied the state in October 27, 1947,” AJK president said and added that Indian occupation forces have been engaged in the game of death and destruction for last seven decades.
People of Kashmir raised the slogan of freedom from India in 1947 and now after 70 years, cities, villages and vales of Kashmir still resonate with the slogans of Azadi and say ‘India go back and vacate our Kashmir with one voice.
Speaking on the occasion, Federal Minister for Kashmir Affairs Chaudhary Barjees Tahir has called for immediate peaceful resolution of Kashmir issue and urged India to immediately stop killing of innocent people in the held valley.
He said it is the third Kashmiri generation struggling to attain their internationally recognized right to self determination and expressed his hope that day is not far off when sacrifices rendered by Kashmiri people would bear fruits and they will get their freedom. Chaudhary Barjees Tahir said he is feeling honor to represent Pakistani nation to express solidarity with Kashmiri brethren here today.
Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider Khan in his speech said India’s Kashmir policy is being run by its establishment that have decided to crush Kashmir resistance movement through the force. India, he said is trying to change demography of Kashmir to turn majority of Muslims into minority. The Prime Minister expressed his profound gratitude to the government and people of Pakistan for demonstrating their solidarity with Kashmiris in unprecedented manner. He said Pakistani nation under the leadership of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif is determined to continue their whole hearted support to the Kashmiris struggle for right to self determination. He expressed his dismay over the absence of opposition from the house on the eve of Kashmir Solidarity Day.
He invited the opposition to keep political differences aside and work together for the cause of Kashmir. The Prime Minister said a seminar would be organized in AJK University to apprise the new generation from the importance of Kashmir issue and to prepare our youths to counter Indian propaganda. He said that similar seminars would be organized in different universities of all four provinces of Pakistan and Gilgit Baltistan.
