Islamabad - The government on Thursday informed the Upper House of the Parliament that it was devising a vibrant policy to highlight the Kashmir issue and starting a campaign internationally to expose India with regard to its policies about Indian Held Kashmir (IHC).
The government also said that there was a need to thwart the ‘game plan’ of newly elected Indian government led by Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) as it wanted to make IHC part of the Indian Union.
Advisor to PM on National Security and Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz, responding to a number of queries of the opposition lawmakers, told the Senate that not only 700,000 Indian army was present in IHC but also innocent people were being kidnapped and killed there. “The government is starting a campaign to expose India with regard to Kashmir issue in which the lethargic response of the Indian government would also be highlighted during recent floods in Kashmir,” he said.
He urged the need to activate different think tanks on the Kashmir issue and to highlight the issue on social media.
“We have been making efforts to find the solution through dialogue but the dialogue process always discontinued,” he said.
The Advisor said that the relations between the India and Pakistan had become tense after the BJP government took over and unprovoked firing along the Line of Control (LoC) and the Working Boundary was reflective of its intentions. “It was in the election manifesto of the BJP to make Kashmir part of Indian Union and BJP wanted to do this after dividing Kashmir into three parts,” he said adding that the despite all these efforts the disputed status of the IHC would not be affected. “The role of UN is needed to resolve the Kashmir issue and multilateral track is being activated to resolve it as the bilateral process is not heading towards its direction,” he said.
Sartaj said that 414 incidents of ceasefire violations took place along the Working Boundary last year and 214 such incidents took place this year but the intensity of this year’s ceasefire violations was higher than ín the previous years’.
He also rejected accusation of India that it started firing as jehadis (militants) were being given cover along the Working Boundary. He said that Pakistan troops had retaliated effectively to the firing of Indian forces. He also said that India was not ready to accept the role of the UN observer group in recent firing incidents.
About the query of Senator Farhatullah Babar that how SAFRON Minister Lt. General (retd) Abdul Qadir Baloch gave the statement in the National Assembly that Pakistan’s nuclear programme was not established to place it in cold store, the Advisor to PM said that the statement of the minister was being conceived wrongly.
“The minister had said that those countries having nuclear capability have to move forward with responsibility,” he reminded the lawmakers. He said that the support of the US to make India a permanent member of UN Security Council was not new thing but it would be difficult for India, as it had not required number of votes for this purpose. “The strategy of our group is right in this regard,” he said.
Sartaj further said that the sanctions of India on some militant groups of Pakistan was also not new but their policy was clear that the Pakistani government would itself take action against militant groups and would not let any foreign country do this. “But our policy is not to defend such militant groups,” he added.
The lawmakers in the Senate strongly condemned the bomb attack on JUI-F chief Moulana Fazalur Rehman in Quetta and stressed the need for a coordinated intelligence sharing among the provinces and the federation.
Raza Rabbani said the attack was part of the conspiracy to destabilize Balochistan either through sectarian violence or attacking political people.
Farhatullah said the attack was a fundamental flaw against the policy of the government to fight with the militants. Kamal Ali Agha said that it was an attack on the political leadership of Pakistan.
Meanwhile, MQM staged a token walkout from the House after Tahir Mashhadi said that Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly used irresponsible language against Mohajirs.
Farhatullah withdrew a bill from the House regarding powers, immunities and privileges of the Parliamentarians on the other day’s protest of the journalists. “I will review those clauses of the bill on which media persons have objections,” he said adding that media would be consulted.