Altaf Hamid Rao
MIRPUR (AJK): The President of Azad Kashmir Sardar Masood Khan here on Wednesday called upon the Kashmiri Diaspora Community to lend all of their energies for highlighting the Kashmir cause to muster the maximum sympathies of the external world towards the early solution of the lingering conflict.
President Masood, who is also Chancellor of the MUST Varsity, expressed these views while addressing a seminar titled ‘Role of Kashmiri Diaspora for Project of Kashmir Cause’ hosted by Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Cell with the Collaboration of the state-run Mirpur University of Science & Technology (MUST) and the UK-based Jammu & Kashmir Self Determination Movement EU, at the main campus of the MUST here on Wednesday.
AJK President Masood Khan said that the role of Pakistani and Kashmiri Diaspora in highlighting the Kashmir cause in Britain and other western countries was always highly praiseworthy. He underlined that the Diaspora Community shall have to involve and persuade their UK-born young generation towards their existing and upcoming vibrant role to attract the international community including the western world of their due global responsibilities towards the early peaceful solution of Kashmir issue, which, he emphasized, is key to the emergence of durable and everlasting peace not only in the South Asian Region but the world over.
Sardar Masood Khan continued that the Diaspora community of Azad Jammu Kashmir and Pakistan can play a pivotal role in the economic development of their lands of origin and promote dialogue and harmony amongst civilizations. The President rejected the notion propagated by India that the Kashmir issue was a bilateral issue. The Kashmiri Diaspora, he said, had always given prominence to the international dimension of the dispute and urged their own governments and parliaments to ask the United Nations to follow through its resolutions asking for a plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir to let its people decide their own political future.
Masood Khan said that Kashmiris had given sacrifices for the past one century. India should know, he said, that they will not turn back until they attain their rights and freedom. President Masood Khan said that the Kashmiri Diaspora, which has grown in numbers all over the world, works closely with the Pakistani Diaspora and local communities in their countries of adoption.
Over the years, he said, Kashmiri Diaspora’s strengths have increased manifold. “They are economically well off and they have gain political clout and traction. They are using their new found space to highlight the issue of Jammu and Kashmirâ€, the President said.
The AJK President commended the Kashmiri Diaspora community for winning respect of the host countries by hard work, professionalism and commitment to the values. Kashmiri Diaspora was well integrated. But, he said, the Kashmiri communities in different countries were facing many challenges too. These included attempts by the Indian community to paint Kashmiris, Pakistanis and Muslims as terrorists and extremists.
In his detailed and comprehensive address to the seminar Vice Chancellor Prof. Dr. Habib ur Rehman called upon the peace and human rights loving nations the world over to perform their due global obligations to draw international attention to the massive human rights’ violations in the bleeding occupied Kashmir valley at the hands of the Indian occupational forces. The ugly situation of human rights in the occupied valley was resulting in the making of a major humanitarian crisis affecting the entire population of the ill-fated land. The VC said that it enjoined upon the world organizations and individuals to help resolve the much-delayed Kashmir conflict without further loss of time.
Lauding the role of the members of the UK and European parliaments and representatives of Kashmiri Diaspora in projecting the Kashmir cause, Prof. Dr. Habib ur Rehman said, “We are indebted to the UK and European Parliamentarians for continuously supporting the Kashmir cause; showing grave concerns for the atrocities committed against the Kashmiris and extending valuable support to the people of Jammu and Kashmir in their just struggle for freedom. The Vice Chancellor said that the people of Jammu & Kashmir were struggling for 70 years for their freedom from illegal Indian occupation.
Pertinently, the seminar was attended by visiting British parliamentary delegation comprising MPs Yasmin Qureshi, Graham Jones, Faisal Rasheed and Mohammad Yasin, as well as Raja Najabat, Chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir Self-determination Movement EU. Vice Chancellor of the MUST Prof. Dr. Habib ur Rehman (Sitara e Imtiaz), Members of the British Parliament including MP Graham Jones, Pakistan-origin MP Yasmeen Qureshi, MP Faisal Rasheed and MP Muhammad Yasin, leader of the delegation Chairman JKRSDM Raja Nijabat Hussain, Chairman of Policy Research Forum (a think tank) Brig (Retd) Dr. Muhammad Khan, Secretary Jammu Kashmir Liberation Cell Muhammad Idrees Abbasi, Director JKLC Raja Muhammad Sajaad Khan and others also addressed the seminar.