ISLAMABAD - Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi Tuesday in the Senate invited the opposition for talks to form a joint action plan for resolving the dispute of Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir. 

The remarks of the senior leader of ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) came after the opposition went into a blame game over the Kashmir issue and questioned the performance of the government to resolve this lingering dispute. 

“I invite all the opposition that doors of the Foreign Office are always open for them when it comes to the Kashmir issue,” the minister said in a policy statement in the house while winding up the debate to mark January 5 as the “Kashmiris’ Right to Self-determination Day.” 

On January 5, 1949, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) had passed a resolution accepting the Kashmiris’ right of self-determination through UN-sponsored free and impartial plebiscite.   

The foreign minister said that the government was ready to incorporate all appropriate suggestions of the opposition into the action plan. “Let us join hands on this issue. This is a continuous battle and we will have to fight it collectively,” he said adding that it was important to send a unified message from the upper house.

At the same time, the minister also used the floor to criticise three major opposition parties including PPP, PML and JUI-F while responding to their accusations with regard to government’s performance on Kashmir. 

Qureshi came down hard on the opposition for using the Kashmir issue for political point scoring. He reaffirmed that Pakistan was "part of Occupied Kashmir's movement for self-determination” and working for Kashmir cause was an obligation of the government. He informed the house that the PTI government has internationalised the Kashmir issue. He added that the present regime has made a political map on Kashmir that comprised of Pakistan’s comprehensive stance on the dispute and all political parties shave endorsed it. 

The minister said the message should be loud and clear for the international community that Pakistan stands by the Kashmiris till the resolution of their dispute. “If they hear to this confusion and political point scoring, they will demoralize,” he said and added “Give them (Kashmiris) strength and don’t demoralize them.” He added that Pakistan and its every citizen were advocating for Kashmiris and would continue to do so because taking it as their duties. 

Responding to the criticism of PPP Senator Sherry Rehman, the minister agreed that PPP founder and former Prime Minister Zulfiqar Ali Bhutto had once remarked that they were ready to fight for years for the Kashmir cause but regretted that his successors in the party turned their eyes from issue. 

The remarks prompted Senator Sherry to stage a walkout from the house. 

In her absence, the foreign minister continued while saying that he had invited Sherry Rehman, PPP MNA Naveed Qamar and PML-N Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed for briefing on Kashmir issue. “I wish they had shown maturity while rising above political expediencies,” he remarked.  

Senator Sherry later questioned the claim of foreign minister through a tweet. 

“Shocked to hear FM saying that he invited myself, Naveed Qamar and Mushahid Hussain to his Kashmir briefings and that we did not go, because each time all 3 of us went. Only once I was in Karachi at short notice and I personally regretted but my colleagues went! We’ve never done such politics,” she tweeted. 

Shah Mahmood Qureshi also reminded JUI-F Senator Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri that his party chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman had a chance to plead the Kashmir case as Chairman Kashmir Committee for a long time. “But he could not pay attention to it at that time.” 

Responding to opposition PML-N’s allegation of putting the Kashmir issue on back burner, he said, “I am aware of your political compulsions”. He referred to the claim by former Foreign Office spokesperson Ms Tasneem Aslam that ex-prime minister Nawaz Sharif had asked the diplomats not to speak against India during the PML-N tenure. He said Kashmir word was banned in Foreign Office during last regime. 

The minister told the house that he had written letters to the Leader of Opposition in the National Assembly Shahbaz Sharif and Chairman PPP Bilawal Bhutto Zardari inviting them for a briefing on Kashmir. “It is regretful that I did not get a response (from them).” 

He said it was part of ruling BJP’s manifesto to revoke special status of Occupied Kashmir even when Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was guest of the then Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif at Jati Umra. 

The foreign minister said that United States President-elect Joe Biden has had enough experience in foreign policy and was aware of the Kashmir issue. 

Biden had been raising his voice about the human rights violations in Occupied Kashmir and we expect that he will continue to do the same after assuming power, he also said. 

He added that if the US and the European Union used to raise effective voices for human rights in occupied territory, then they could expect some ray of hope. 

He also paid tribute to people in Occupied Kashmir and veteran Kashmiri leaders including Syed Ali Shah Geelani, Asiya Andrabi, and Yasin Malik saying that they had been “raising their voice at every opportunity despite the communications blockade, military siege and other restrictions.” 

“India has not succeeded in breaking their resolve. The extent to which the Kashmiris are alienated from the present Indian government has not been seen in the last 72 years,” the foreign minister said. He also said that the government was aware of the fact that Modi regime was going to undermine the Indus Water Treaty. Earlier, the Parliamentary Leader of PPP in Senate Sherry Rehman opening the debate on Kashmir said that January 5 marked the promise of the UN and the international community to the people of Occupied Kashmir who now live under a colonizing, and violent rule of a neo fascist regime of India. She said that that the Kashmir issue had been on a different trajectory, had Zulfikar Ali Bhutto been alive. PML-N Senator Rana Maqbool Ahmad accused the PTI government of putting the Kashmir issue on back burner. The house unanimously passed a resolution demanding immediate and unconditional release of Kashmiri leader Asiya Andrabi, who is incarcerated in the in-famous Tihar Jail in India, and her two colleagues and urged the government of Pakistan to take up this issue internationally.