By Manzoor Ahmed
The British Parliament passed Independence Act, in 1947, miserably failed in its full and satisfactory implementation, and thus left a bleeding wound in the Sub-Continent in the shape of Kashmir dispute. The rulers in Pakistan and India further exploited the issue and used it as a pretext to impoverish their peoples. Neither Kashmir issue was resolved nor the people were developed, both the Kashmir issue and the poverty of the people in both countries travel hand in hand.
A simple legal and political issue of the right of accession got the shape of such dragon, which devoured the development of the peoples in both countries. This issue paved the way to the acquisition of weapons of mass destruction in both the countries at the cost of the human development. It provided a pretext to the rulers in both the countries to make the lives of its own people in the hell by not diverting funds to their development.
The religious parties and groups hijacked the issue, started arm struggle against each other, and rendered it a tool for the accumulation of money from the people. They are funded at the expense of the people of both the countries. Both the countries are stuffing facilities in the Kashmiris in the hope to get their support which further fragmented them and despite hot struggle since 1988 and martyrdom of thousands of people, no result was obtained. If the issue is viewed as a legal person, it becomes evident that Indians played a foul play by sending army to Kashmir by considering it as a part of India. Whereas, Kashmir was a State; had yet to decide to join any country. Neither the ruler gave an opportunity to the Kashmiris to decide whether they wished to join Pakistan or India nor India showed any patience in the resolution of this dispute. Kashmir was, is and will remain the unfinished agenda of the partition of the Sub-Continent. The Indian Independence Act 1947 is yet to be fully implemented by the British Government if they consider their Parliament fully sovereign and champion of the human rights. It was the high-handedness of India to ignore the wishes of the people of Kashmir despite being claiming the largest democracy in the World. I am against neither India nor any other Country of the World because I want to have a clear and unbiased mind towards the resolution of all the problems. I love humanity whether of my Country or of any other Country. I do not want to confine my thinking only to a certain aspect of a matter. When the Indian Prime Minister promised with the people of Kashmir of plebiscite, also took the issue to the U.N.O. then why the issued was ignored for the last 60 years. History shows us that those people who sincerely devoted themselves to any cause, they achieved the desired results eventually but what is the flaw in the liberation of the Kashmir? I am of the opinion that the Kashmiri people are themselves are responsible for the delay in their liberation. Those who had the capability to play a vital role in the liberation either went abroad and settled there peacefully or are just holding conferences, seminars and spend their wealth in vain.
The British Government ignored the Kashmiris for all the times but it is also ironical that the majority of the Kashmiris preferred to live in the Britain and are just wasting their time in holding conferences, seminars, rallies and debates. They are asking those for the help who have created this problem for them. They are playing a key role in building the economy of that Country which has tried to destroy their specificity in the World and have left them on the mercy of India and Pakistan and the “helpless†U.N.O which has no force to implement its authority in an area without the wishes of the aggressor. It was the responsibility of the Kashmiri leaders to show their people their actual enemy but even their own leaders visit all those countries for merry-making who have closed their eyes and ears to the Kashmiri people. It was the responsibility of the Kashmiri leaders to organise their people at all levels for winning for themselves the right of self-determination from the people of the World.
Late Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto was indeed a great and shrewd leader when in 1976, he said that Pakistani people can help the Kashmiris people but could not get independence for them from India. In this way, he sent a strong message to the Kashmiris to be united in their cause of independence and mobilize all their monetary, military, political resources to their mission. It they are clear in their approach then they should arm themselves instead of killing themselves on the Indian forces having guns in their hands. Demonstrations, processions are meaningless when the opposite party is armed with sophisticated weapons. I salute to the Kashmiri mothers, sisters, daughters who are courageous and always encourage their men. Now it is the responsibility of the men of Kashmir to show masculinity in their cause of independence instead of telling stories of the Indian atrocities to the print and electronic media. They should speak that language with the brute Indian forces in which they speak with the Kashmiri people.
Kashmiri people are very intelligent, brave, rich in wealth and firm in their determination and struggle but have weakened themselves by living in almost every country of Europe and America. They should come back along with their wealth which they have kept in the banks of foreign countries for the last 60 years instead of depending on our resources. They will have to sacrifice their wealth and comfortable lives abroad for the independence of Kashmir. How long the people of Pakistan will suffer for their independence. Like the brave Afghans, who expelled the Soviet Union from their country, they will have to expel the Indian Army by creating such atmosphere inside Kashmir which may render their presence impossible. Seminars and Conferences were held for the last 60 years without any result. If the Kashmiri leaders travel the whole World, they will find no friend anywhere who may guarantee to achieve independence for them. This recipe of preaching of the helplessness of the Kashmiri people or atrocities of the occupied forces has become out-dated and should be discarded. Those sitting permanently in the United Nations have now their own priorities and are unwilling to listen to the cries of the people of Kashmir.
In such circumstances, it is the great injustice with the already impoverished people of Pakistan to do more while the Kashmiri themselves pay lukewarm attention to it by leaving their homes in Kashmir and preferring to live abroad. Indeed the Kashmir issue is a fertile issue for those leaders among the people who use the name of Kashmir but spoil the wealth, time and resources of the people. Every strategy was used to resolve this issue by the Governments of Pakistan and India but faced failure and they will face failure in the future until the active participation of the people Kashmir.
The British Government created problem for the Kashmiri 60 years ago, Almighty God created problems for the British in Afghanistan and they remain day and night in fear of death along with their sophisticated weapons in hand.
I request those powers who have created this problem to compel India to accept the right of self determination to the Kashmiri people and in this way they will also take some mercy on the people of Pakistan that their leaders will not be able any more to use huge funds for this problem by ignoring the most deserved people of their Country.
For so many years India had been bluffing the world that they are serious in holding discussions with Pakistan on the issue of Kashmir. All of a sudden India came up with a new idea that breakthroughs in United Nations Security Council (UNSC) platform in the shape of Resolutions on Kashmir have lost their significance after Simla Agreement between Pakistan and India, claiming that onwards all issues will be solved bilaterally. In this way over two and a half decades were wasted. On the Pakistani side, General (Retired) Pervez Musharraf made some “out-of-the-box” proposals which indicated his willingness to accept the permanence of the Line of Control, with slight readjustments. Pervez Musharraf also proposed to withdraw the dispute from the UN Security Council.
Role in India’s Domestic Politics. RAW also became a political instrument in internal politics which came to the fore during the infamous ‘emergency period’ under Prime Minister Mrs. Gandhi. Former Joint Secretary in Prime Minister Mrs. Gandhi’s Secretariat, B.N. Tandon stated, ‘under R.N. Rao the RAW conducted domestic, surveillance’s. I have seen several unsigned reports submitted by them…. RAW funds were used for party purposes.’
We must accept one good thing about Indians is that they are very nationalists and it is evident from their recent action of setting Nokia retail outlets on fire and threatening them with further consequences if Nokia didn’t included the occupied terrorist of Kashmir in India. On its part, Nokia has expressed regrets for the incident after coming under severe pressure of further vandalism and negative propaganda in one of the world biggest market of its handsets. Nokia has termed it as a mistake and will act to rectify it. I wonder why our fellow Pakistani’s never protested at such things or are they too peaceful for any such activity? In any case, i think Pakistani’s should come out and stop using Nokia mobiles if they included the occupied Kashmir territory in the map of India. It is a fact well recognized by United Nations that Kashmir is disputed territory and hence if Nokia includes it in the map of India, it would very biased decision and hence warrants for a full fledged boycott of Nokia handsets and its other telecommunication equipment in Pakistan.
