“Repression in IOK must end, diplomacy be given a chance: Sanjrani”
Islamabad: (Parliament Times) President Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Sardar Masood Khan, called on Honourable Muhammad Sadiq Sanjrani, Acting President of Pakistan and Chairman Senate, at the President House here in Islamabad.
Both leaders exchanged views on important regional matters as well as development projects in Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
Acting President Sadiq Sanjrani said that Pakistan and its Parliament would continue to extend strong moral, political and diplomatic support to the people of Jammu and Kashmir for the realization of their right to self-determination. The Acting President expressed his deep concern that every day innocent Kashmiris, particularly young men, were being killed by the Indian forces. These killings must stop and diplomacy must be given a chance, he said. The Jammu and Kashmir dispute, he said, can only be resolved through engagement and diplomatic means.
Mr. Sanjrani emphasized said that it is a moral obligation for India to ease tensions in the region by reciprocating Pakistan’s peace overtures made in good faith.
Earlier, AJK President Masood Khan briefed the Acting President about the deteriorating human rights situation in Indian Occupied Kashmir and continuous, unabated repression in Kashmir which has resulted in the martyrdom of 400 people in this year alone. According to foreign media, he said, in the past several years thousands of people IOK, mostly teenagers, have lost their eyesight due to the use of lethal pellet guns. The latest victim, Hiba Nisar, is only 18 months old. He paid tribute to the heroic people of IOK, who were continuing their peaceful struggle for freedom and self-determination in the face of barbarism, oppression and naked brute force.
Acting President/ Chairman Senate Sadiq Sanjrani urged the international community to intercede and help put an end to gross and consistent human rights violations in IOK and resolve the dispute through dialogue and in accordance with the framework given by the United Nations Security Council Resolutions.
The AJK President thanked the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, the All-Party Parliamentary Kashmir Group in the UK Parliament and the OIC Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission for documenting and issuing reports on IOK in regard to the systematic rights abuses, culture of impunity, massive killings, immunity from prosecution to perpetrators, use of rape as an instrument of war, torture and enforced disappearances. It is high time, he said, that the UN Human Rights Council established a Commission of Inquiry to investigate these human rights violations. It is incumbent on major powers, he said, to break their silence on the gruesome situation in IOK and step forward to support diplomatic initiatives to resolve the Jammu and Kashmir dispute.
On the occasion of the 70th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights, falling on December 10, the Acting President/ Chairman Senate and the AJK President said that Pakistan and Azad Kashmir were committed to the promotion and protection of human rights and would continue to engage and reach out to the human rights bodies at the UN, as well as other human rights forums.
Acting President Muhammad Sadiq Sanjrani commended the efforts of President AJK towards the socio-economic development of the region. President AJK thanked the Acting President for actively pursuing the cause of Kashmir in the Senate and in the international parliamentary and political forums.
