LAHORE: The landmark 1972 Simla Agreement between Pakistan and India does not obligate the two nuclear neighbours to resolve the lingering Kashmir conflict through “bilateral means” alone, a British historian and author argued.
Victoria Schofield, an eminent historian, author, scholar, and biographer with a particular interest in South Asia and the Kashmir dispute, said that according to the agreement, the two countries will try to resolve the issue bilaterally or through any other mutually agreed means.
During a session on the topic of Kashmir at the Institute of Policy Studies (IPS), a think tank based in Islamabad, she stressed that this clause of the agreement “needs to be highlighted to seek international mediation on the issue.”
The peace treaty was signed in July 1972 between Pakistan and India following the war in 1971 in Shimla, the capital of India’s Himachal Pradesh state, with the goal of normalising the bitter tensions and paving the way for bilateral talks to resolve all conflicting issues.
The conflict, Schofield said, demands the international community’s attention and arbitration be resolved for the sake of the millions of lives of the region’s inhabitants, as well as the peace that Pakistan and India deserve in the future.
Schofield, who has visited both sides of the disputed region many times, lamented the people in Indian-occupied Kashmir are “still living traumatic lives […] there are a number of civilian deaths and arrests occurring every day, and armed soldiers roaming the streets.”
She described the situation in the valley as a “grave humanitarian crisis,” saying she believes the long-running dispute must be resolved with the participation of multiple stakeholders, including China due to its claim to the Aksai Chin and Trans Karakoram Tract.
She said the people of both sides of the valley, the Jammu region, Gilgit-Baltistan, which borders neighbouring China, and the Ladakh region “may not necessarily have a similar opinion” on the long-smouldering dispute.
Several young activists from the Indian-occupied territory of Jammu and Kashmir, including Mujahid Gilani and Ahmed bin Qasim, the son of incarcerated leaders Qasim Faktoo and Asiya Andrabi from Kashmir, took part in the discussion.
Syed Abrar Hussain, Pakistan’s former ambassador to Afghanistan, stated that Islamabad has tried on numerous occasions to resolve this issue through dialogue and international mediation.
“India, however, remains adamant in its unilateral stance,” he added.
Hussain, who is also the policy institute’s vice chair, reiterated that the people of Kashmir are the principal stakeholders in the international conflict and that no resolution is possible unless they were granted their “right to self-determination.”
Pakistan and India both hold Kashmir in part and claim the Himalayan region in full. China also controls part of the contested region, but it is New Delhi and Islamabad which have fought two wars over the territory.
