Distorting facts

http://www.thenews.com.pk/Todays-News-11-141308-Distorting-facts

Tuesday, November 06, 2012
From Print Edition

This is with reference to the report submitted before a two-member bench of the apex court by the interior ministry on Nov 3. The ministry, while presenting its viewpoint regarding the messy situation in Balochistan, made some startling and otiose observations, which straightaway negated Pakistan’s stand on the issue of Jammu and Kashmir. Citing Kashmir as one of the union territories (states) of India, the secretary interior K M Siddiq awfully, and perhaps wilfully, created an impression that the Indian-administered Kashmir is a legal entity of India.

The statement by a top bureaucrat before the country’s top judge, and that too in the presence of the federal minister, speaks volumes about the official’s naiveté regarding the issue. Making no difference between Kashmir and other states of India, the secretary interior’s statement as a matter of fact strengthened Indian stance on the issue besides lending credence to its claims that Kashmir is an integral part of India. Siddiq’s assertions, in other words, branded Kashmiris’ ongoing struggle as nothing but an armed insurgency and in a way he justified India’s military aggression intended to suppress peoples’ peaceful movement in Kashmir.

I wonder this gentleman, elevated to such an important position, does not know that (a) Jammu and Kashmir is an internationally recognised disputed territory; (b) the UN had categorically stated regarding elections in Jammu and Kashmir that elections were not a substitute to Kashmiris’ right to self-determination; (c) India and Pakistan fought several wars on this issue; (d) Pakistan supports Kashmiris’ struggle for their right to self-determination and (e) Pakistan seeks a peaceful solution to the Kashmir dispute in line with the relevant UN resolutions. If the interior ministry official is not aware of the historical background of the Kashmir issue then he is not worthy of such a prestigious post.

Nisar Ahmed Thakur

Muzaffarabad, AJK