Altaf Hamid Rao
MIRPUR (AJK): Pakistan-origin member of the European Parliament Sajjad Haider Karim has called for early grant of right of self determination to the people of Jammu & Kashmir without any further delay.
Karim made these remarks while speaking at a grand reception ceremony hosted in his honour by Senior Minister of AJK Ch. Tariq Farooq here Thursday night. Sajjad Karim is a British Conservative Member of the European Parliament representing the North West of England and is the founding chairman of the European Parliament Friends of Pakistan Group. Besides the host – Sr. minister Ch. Tariq Farooq, Chairman Brussels-based Kashmir Council European Union Syed Ali Raza, JKLL President Justice (Retd) Abdul Majeed Mallick, AJK minister for Sports Ch. Muhammad Saeed, MLA Ch. Rukhsar Ahmed, Ch. Zaffar Anwar Chief Organiser PTI, AJK Chapter, Ch. Pervez Ashraf of PPP AJK, Mirza Shafique Jiraal of AJK Muslim Conference, Director General MDA Ch. Ejaz Raza, Director General Kashmir Liberation Cell Fida Hussain Kiyani and others also addressed the ceremony.
Speakers paid rich tributes to Sajjad Haider Karim for his meritorious services to the Kashmir cause in European countries including Britain. Speakers emphasized the need for determining of the status of the government of the base camp vis-à-vis highlighting Kashmir freedom struggle at international level. Speaking on the occasion Sajjad Haider Karim said that early and peaceful settlement of Kashmir issue was the need of hour. He said Pakistani-origin members of the British and European Parliaments would leave no stone unturned in sensitizing the world community about the early & peaceful solution of Kashmir issue. The Pakistan-born member European Parliament revealed that Kashmir group comprising the like-minded members of the European Parliament would be created to raise voice against the increased human rights abuses by the Indian occupational forces against the innocent freedom loving people in Indian occupied Jammu & Kashmir who have launched struggle for the liberation of the motherland.
Speaking on this occasion, Jammu & Kashmir Liberation League President and ex Chief Justice of Azad Jammu & Kashmir High Court Justice (Retd) Abdul Majeed Mallick called upon the international community including the United Nations Secretary General to implement the UN resolutions on Kashmir to ensure durable peace in the region.
The JKLL President invited the attention of the UN Secretary General that in view of the past record, India is pursuing the policy to perpetuate status quo in the internationally-acknowledged disputed Himalayan State of Jammu & Kashmir. Justice (Retd) Majeed Mallick continued that at present Jammu & Kashmir State was neither part of India and nor it acceded to Pakistan and at the same time it enjoyed the status of an independent state with effect from enforcement of Indian Independence Act of August 15th, 1947, he maintained. He strongly proposed that the Jammu & Kashmir state should immediately be given the status of an observer in the United Nations Organization (UNO) through the acknowledged leadership of the state till plebiscite was held and the future of the State was determined by the people by exercising their legitimate right of self determination. Justice (R ) Majeed Mallick said that Islam guaranteed universal human rights and universal peace.
“In order to bring harmony, tranquility, justice and peace in the world, it was enjoined upon the comity of nations to adhere to tenets and injunctions postulated by Islam”, he stated.
“A large number of persons were being found missing and imprisoned in jails without trial in Indian occupied valley”, he pointed out and emphasized that since India invoked the jurisdiction of the United Nations Security Council by seeking truce and ceasefire with a surety to a plebiscite in the state to enable the people of Jammu & Kashmir to decide their future by self determination.
