Questions Pakistan Doesn’t Want Kashmiris To Ask – OpEd
Every year, Pakistan religiously uses the annual United Nations General Assembly [UNGA] podium to repeat its pathetic Kashmir narrative, spicing it up with brazen untruth in an attempt to attract international attention and though palpably incredulous this discourse is [expectedly] hailed as a spectacular diplomatic victory year after year by the local media. This is why Pakistan’s proxies in J&K wonder why Islamabad’s more than seven-decade-old self-proclaimed"successful"Kashmir campaign hasn’t stirred the international community or translated into any meaningful action?
In 2023, Pakistan’s then Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto publicly admitted that"We face a particularly uphill task to try and get Kashmir onto the centre of the agenda at the United Nations."With this rare but frank admission of Islamabad’s failed Kashmir diplomatic offensive coming from the proverbial horse’s mouth itself, the pro-Pakistan lobby in J&K again wants to know that if its claims on Kashmir are indeed right and in complete unison with UN resolutions on this issue, then why are Islamabad’s efforts get this issue on center stage at the UN“a particularly uphill task”?
Pakistan’s problems are twofold- one, it refuses to accept reality and instead continues to live with [in its former ambassador to US Husain Haqqani’s words]“magnificent delusions.”Two, it ridicules human intellect, and former US President Donald Trump’s 2018 New-Year tweet mentioning that“they [the Pakistanis] have given us nothing but lies & deceit, thinking of our leaders as fools”aptly sums up Islamabad’s puerile outlook while peddling its Kashmir narrative. AndPakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif did exactly this during his UNGA address last Thursday.
He claimed that“Day in and day out, nine hundred thousand Indian troops terrorise the people of occupied Jammu and Kashmir, with draconian measures including prolonged curfews, extra-judicial killings and abduction of thousands of young Kashmiris,”and expected the discerning audience to believe this hogwash. With the international community closely watching ongoing developments in J&K and foreign delegates physically witnessing the ongoing elections in J&K that saw both a record number of candidates in the fray and voter turnout, Sharif’s humongous bundle of lies obviously impressed no one.
The pro-Pakistan camp in J&K is at its wit’s end by the yawning gap Islamabad’s promises and actions. It’s no secret that Pakistan is sponsoring armed groups in J&K as it openly eulogises barefaced terrorism as a“freedom struggle”that is justified. Pakistan’s proxies want to know why Islamabad is repeatedly declaring that it seeks a“peaceful resolution”to the Kashmir issue and not providing diplomatic and moral support to the‘armed struggle’? They also want to know as to why Pakistan based armed groups likeLashkar-e-Taiba[LeT] andJaish-e-Mohammad[JeM] supposedly fighting for Kashmir’s so-called“azadi”[liberation] have been proscribed by Islamabad?
Pakistan talks a lot about how people living in the part of J&K under its illegal occupation [Pakistan occupied Jammu and Kashmir or PoJK] enjoy complete freedom of expression, are content and thriving. However, those indoctrinated into espousing the“Kashmir banega Pakistan”[Kashmir will become a part of Kashmir] sentiment want to know that if things are so hunky-dory in PoJK then why does thePoJKconstitution of decree that“No person or political party in Azad Jammu and Kashmir shall be permitted to propagate against, or take part in activities prejudicial or detrimental to, the ideology of the State’s accession to Pakistan”?
Pakistan has also not told its apologists that if Article 370 and 35A abrogation really violated UNSC resolutions on Kashmir, then why did Islamabad fail to solicit UN intervention and get this so-called“illegal”action reversed? And if UNSC refused to play its mandated role in ensuring integrity of its own resolutions, then why didn’t Islamabad approach the International Court of Justice [ICJ] on this issue? With the then Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi announcing that"An in-principle decision has been taken to take the issue of Kashmir to the International Court of Justice,"why didn’t Islamabad do so?
Islamabad continues to peddle its“full of sound and fury signifying nothing”Kashmir narrative without providing any convincing answers for this grandiose initiative’s abysmal failure. Hence, it would do the pro-Pakistan camp in J&K a lot of good to shed opinionated and emotive views and instead take a considered view of the ground realities. Let’s take the case of All Parties Hurriyat Conference [APHC] leaders who are spearheading the secessionist movement in J&K. While common Kashmiris have lost a lot on account of Pakistan sponsored proxy war in J&K, haven’t AHPC leaders who have been furthering Islamabad’s motivated agenda actually profited from it?
Haven't the humble dwellings of many APHC leaders with modest incomes given way to opulent mansions ever since terrorism erupted inJ&K? Simultaneously, the Hizbul Mujahideen [HM] terrorist group demands non-cooperation of locals on the grounds that J&K is under Indian“occupation”and readers would recall that this group had not only ordered policemen to quit service of what it refers to as "occupational forces,”but even killed many who didn’t pay heed to this diktat. However, despite this, didn’t the sons of HM chief Syed Salahuddin continue working in [the so-called“occupational”] government organisations till their services were terminated by the government?
A similar case of flagrant duplicity concerns APHC leader late SAS Geelani. While he ruled out any dialogue with the government on the grounds that it had supposedly“enslaved”Kashmiris, he didn’t have any qualms when his grandson Anees-ul-Islam was taken-in as a research officer in Sher-e-Kashmir International Convention Centre run by the same'oppressive'regime.
In2016,APHC gave a complete shutdown call to protest against the killing of HM terrorist commander Burhan Wani during an encounter. Though educational institutions were forced to close down,the separatist conglomerate didn’t object to the conduct of class 9 and 10 exams by a private school under the aegis of J&K government since Geelani’s granddaughter and separatist leader Shabir Shah's daughter were appearing in the exams.
Furthermore, while the HM chief wants Kashmiri youth to pick up the gun, he has ensured that his own children remain out of harm’s way. In February 2016, when armed terrorists entered the Entrepreneurship Development Institute building in Pampore [Kashmir], JK police evacuated105 employees and trainees from the EDI complex and amongst those moved to safety was Salahuddin’s son Syed Mueed Yusuf.
While the operation was in progress, the pro-Pakistan lobby orchestrated a public protest at the site to facilitate escape of the cornered terrorists by diverting attention of the security forces. That Salahuddin’s son who despite being present at the encounter site was not amongst the protesters conveys a lot- provided one is prepared to take-off the prism of prejudice!
The harsh reality is that Islamabad can’t answer as to why it is unable to make any headway on the Kashmir issue simply because havingmilitarilyfailed to do so twice, Pakistan now wants to get hold of Kashmir by beguiling its people through religious indoctrination. Brainchild of Pakistan army’s spy agency Inter Services Intelligence [ISI, the heady“Kashmir banega Pakistan”campaign relies heavily on achieving this nefarious designs by arousing religious sentiments.An example is the question-cum-answer slogan“Kashmir ka Pakistan se rishta kya? La ilaha illallah,”the literal translation of which is ‘What is the relation between Kashmir and Pakistan? There’s but only one God’.
The underlying message is clear-it's a shared religion that dictates the merger of Kashmir with Pakistan. While it’s futile to debate this issue, it would do the pro-Pakistan camp in Kashmir a whole lot of good if they just took a moment off to dispassionately reflect upon how Pakistan’s dominant Punjabi society is treating its own Muslims countrymen from the other provinces of Sindh, Balochistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa and its deep disdain for the people of PoJK including Gilgit-Baltistan.