Civil Society stress involvement of Kashmiris in Peace Process

Muzaffarabad:
Report: Raja Wasim Khan
rajawasi@gmail.com

The representatives of different political parties and civil society organizations has demanded the participation of Kashmiris from all units and religions in the ongoing peace process, concentrating utmost interaction among the people of all dividing regions of Jammu and Kashmir. This demand was made unanimously in a Dialogue organized by ASR Resource Centre, a Lahore based peace and research institute, with the collaboration of Press for Peace (PFP) in Muzaffarbad.
The participants of the session thoroughly discussed the latest sitituoion in all parts Jammu and Kashmir. They said that all Kashmiris have to struggle jointly for an amicable and permanent resolution of Kashmir issue, setting aside their religious, policial, ethnic and regional differences.

Miss Night Saeed, Executive Director of ASR said that India and Pakistan would never grant freedom to Kashmiris unless the people of Kashmir struggle themselves for their legitimized right of self determination. The major and foremost need for the people of Kashmir is the restoration of peace in all units that unquestionably would, pave a way towards the settlement of the issue. She urged the people of Kashmir to get rid of their differences to achieve their noble goal and must concentrate on their one point agenda-the liberation.
Ammirdin Mughal, Central Coordinator of Press for Peace (PfP) maintained that both India and Pakistan have manufactured their favourite and desired leadership in both parts of Kashmir that could not be considered as genuine representatives of the people. The aspirations of the people of all units of Kashmir, including Gilgit, Baltistan and Jammu must be honoured and they must be involved equally during the process of settlement of the dispute.
Shoukat Maqbool Butt, Chairman, National Liberation Front (NLF) held that any solution against the wishes of Kashmiris could not be imposed on them by external powers who are interested to resolve the dispute according to their economic and geographical interests. He said that if the citizens of Gilgit do not willing to live with the rest of the Kashmiris, they could not be merged into Kashmir forcfuelly, and however, any mechanism must be evolved to determine the wishes of the people of all regions of Jammu and Kashmir.
Farooq Niazi, human rights activist alleged that all those citizens of Azad Kashmir who don’t agree with the ideology of accession to Pakistan have not been granted the rights to participate in the election or join the public service which is a condemnable violation of basic human rights.
Khwaja Saif ud Din, District president of JKLF and Kamran Beig ,central representative of NSF, a pro independent Kashmir student organization, claimed that the independent Kashmir is the only ‘ permanent ,peaceful and honourable solution of the dispute’. The supporters of independent Kashmir are facing inexpressible torture in Azad Kashmir due to ‘the repressive attitude of the establishment’, they alleged.
Sahibzada Mehmood Advocate of Pakistan Peoples Party expressed that we would never compromise on the ideology of Kashmiriat, however, we have to respect the wishes of majority of population in the consideration of proposal regarding the future of the sate.
Malik Zulfqar, representative of youth wing of ruling Muslim Conference expressed disagreement over the views of some speakers regarding the role of Pakistan and India in Kashmir debate. He claimed that Pakistan and India could not be considered equally during the judgement of their stances over Kashmir.
Senior Analyst and journalist Zulfqar Ali,Raja Wasim ,Farid ul Hadim,Aurengzeb Saifullah, Miss Nighat Choudhary,women coordinator of PFP,Miss Nazmeen ,Sajad Mir and others also spoke on the occasion and presented their views about on going peace process between India and Pakistan.