ISLAMABAD: Time is now to act on Palestine and Kashmir and tangible actions need to be taken now by the UN whose “credibility is at stake”, said top Pakistani politician Shehryar Khan Afridi.
“Why the League of Nations failed miserably?” asked Shehryar Khan Afridi, who is chairman of Pakistan parliament’s special committee on Kashmir.
“Expectations are enormous. Our coming generation, future is at stake. So, everyone needs to chip in. Let’s protect this universe, and this entire world to peaceful means,” Afridi told Anadolu Agency in an exclusive interview discussing situation in Indian-administered Kashmir and occupied territories of Palestine.
Kashmir and Palestine are two oldest cases on the table of the UN which await final resolution.
“We have mutually assured destruction ability [nuclear power]. We have nuclear deterrence; the entire global peace is at stake,” said Afridi referring to tensions between India and Pakistan over Kashmir, calling for granting right to self-determination to people of Jammu and Kashmir.
On Palestine, said Afridi, “Benjamin Netanyahu needs to learn from the Holocaust… all the miseries, the way Jews were pulled and how humanity bled at all levels.”
“Palestinians are humans… They’re as human as anyone else, and they cannot be treated like that. And if the world is still silent on that… if the word remains ignorant. Trust me, we will have to pay a very heavy price, and none of us will be able to justify it,” said Afridi who represents Kohat seat in Pakistan’s parliament.
ROLE OF OIC ‘PIVOTAL’:
Afridi said it was “horrific” for him to see scenes from Gaza which was bombed by Israel since May 10 killing 248 innocent Palestinians.
“We need to put our houses in order. They constantly get your pulse. The pulse of youth, the pulse of your leadership, the pulse of the Ummah, where we stand today? We are polarized in the name of sectarianism. Apart from that, we are polarized in the name of countries, in the name of languages, in the name of values, norms and cultures. So, I believe, a Muslim Ummah needs to unite,” he explained.
The Kashmir Committee chairman said the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) “has a pivotal role to play.”
“Why was the OIC established… because of Palestine, Arab League, all the Muslim countries, need to come forward and become one and the only agenda point of the Ummah should be we need to be treated equally. It’s not about any religion. It’s not about any sect or it’s not about any race, it’s about the global commitment,” he said.
He recalled prior to 1945, “there was no existence… nothing of any sort by the name of Israel in Palestine.”
“And what has been happening since then is demographic terrorism, worse form of terrorism, innocent people of all age groups are being bullied, humiliated. They’re killing innocent children.”
Afridi said it is not about Turkey and Pakistan or Iran, nor Hamas.
“It’s about every human. It’s about every sane human on the face of the earth. It is about all those who value their loved ones. So, it is time to wake up before it’s too late and tangible actions need to be taken now by the prosperous world,” he added.
‘NON-RESOLUTION OF KASHMIR THREAT TO GLOBAL PEACE’:
The Kashmir Committee chairman said non-resolution of Kashmir dispute is “threat to global peace.”
“If we include Russia in this [South Asian] region, half the globe lives here. When we talk of half of the population of this entire globe, then we need to understand the importance of Kashmir issue,” Afridi explained.
“Why Prime Minister Imran Khan has been constantly reminding the global community, and the prosperous world, that Kashmir is a flashpoint, is for a reason that both India, and Pakistan, China and Russia have got nuclear deterrence and anything can challenge the peace of this global community,” he saud.
He said around 80 million people in Indian-administered Kashmir since 5th August, 2019 “are not only treated in an unjust manner, they are being bulldozed of their identity; their rights have been taken away when Articles 35A and 370 was abrogated from Indian constitution.”
“Everything… cultural terrorism, demographic terrorism information terrorism.”
He said EU DisInfo Lab “exposed India to the core which used fake 750 websites and fake identities through fake ways and means, tried to misinform the global community about Pakistan.”
“What [Benjamin] Netanyahu has been doing in Palestine… demographic terrorism, settlements are taking place in Indian Illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir [IIOJK],” said Afridi.
The Line of Control, which divided Kashmir into two under India and Pakistan, said Afridi, is basically dominated by Kashmiris on both the sides.
“Whenever Indian, when their politics or anything related against Muslims, is required for them for their own interests, what they do is they start targeting civilians. The world has witnessed such horrific scenes where children, schools, civilian areas are usually targeted and even the UN, their installation, their ambulances, Red Cross, were targeted,” he said referring to tensions along the LoC in recent past.
India and Pakistan on Feb. 25 this year revived the 2003 agreed ceasefire along the LoC and since then tensions have died down.
“It was very beneficial. And now this [ceasefire] agreement, again, it goes a long, long way, and it’s basically for the people of Kashmir,” he said about the renewed ceasefire agreed by the militaries of the two countries.
He said government of Prime Minister Imran Khan has one agenda: “negotiations or trade or any other activity will start with India, once they go back to that position of 5th August 2019 that rights of 370 and 35 need to be given to the people of IIOJK.”
He said: “situation in IIOJK is horrible, horrific… For every 71,000 people in IIoJK, there is one ventilator. For 3900 people in IIOJK, there is only one doctor, and for 200 people there is only 32 kg of Oxygen.”
“And then when we talk from military point of view [in IIOJK], [it is] worst form of injustice. There is one soldier for nine Kashmiris.”
“It is a humanitarian crisis are taking place, war crimes are taking place, especially after 5th August 2019,” he alleged.
“Financially, the people of Kashmir have been deprived in all ways and means; they have been treated in such a manner where the global community needs to come forward and that is what Pakistan has been emphasizing,” said Afridi.
Afridi said Kashmir is not only an incomplete agenda of the UN. “Since 1948, the UN and the prosperous world is their guarantor to give their due rights.”
He said India has jailed all those Kashmiris “who are talking about freedom.”
“All those who want their rights, they have been thrown behind bars. Asiya Andrabi, Dr Qasim Faktoo, Mr Shabir Shah, there are lots of other cases… but so they’re being drawn behind bars… They prisoners of conscience,” he added.
Referring to death of Mohammad Ashraf Sehrai in police custody, Afridi termed it as a “classic example.”
“He was 78 years old and was martyred. He was behind the bars. And what was his crime? He wanted that commitment from the prosperous world and from India for the people of IIOJK and he became an example for the entire global community,” said the Kashmir Committee chairman.
Sehrai was in jail when his health deteriorated on May 4 and was declared dead by doctors a day later at a hospital in Jammu.
UN CREDIBILITY AT STAKE:
Afridi said the credibility of the UN is “at stake.”
“There are a lot of question marks on UN now. Pakistan has been requesting the prosperous world, all the key stakeholders to come forward and pressurize India to realize and to understand that commitment, which India, India went to UN in 1948,” he said.
It was former Indian Prime Minister JL Nehru who took Kashmir issue to the UN, said Afridi. “Now it is obligatory and mandatory on us, and global key stakeholders, especially the prosperous world, they need to come forward.”
“We are committed as a nation, but it is obligatory on the prosperous world they need to come forward. It was taken up at UN Security Council thrice after August 5, 2019, then by the Human Rights Council.”
He said India was “constantly confusing the entire global community that Kashmir is a bilateral issue.”
“Anyway, it was never bilateral issue, it was always a multilateral issue because UN, and all the signatories of the UN since 1948, on those around dozens of resolutions on Kashmir, that in itself speaks high volumes,” Afridi said.
“The entire global community is a guarantor of that commitment which was given that plebiscite and right to self-determination that was supposed to be given on priority basis to the people of IIOJK, that has not been fulfilled,” he added.
He said Pakistan has a “very clear stand” on Kashmir.
“Our foreign policy has been very, very critical on that. And since we represent both the houses, as Kashmir Parliamentary Committee where I have got members from all the political parties from opposition and from ruling parties, our stance is that India needs to go back prior to the 5th of August 2019, only then, anything in any capacity, a dialogue or trade or anything can be initiated.”
