Despite the victory of 15 Pakistani and Kashmiri origin politicians elections in the UK parliament, the interest of Pakistan and Kashmir hardly become a point of discussion in the UK society, and this is primarily because the lack of proper planning by the Pakistani diasporas in the UK and the government of Pakistan too.
Ali Sajjad, the publisher of progressive newspaper The Minute Mirror in Pakistan, says he is planning to closely coordinate between the Pakistan-British parliamentarians and the Pakistan origin disporia to bridge the gap.
Reports appearing in the media suggest the UK parliament has 15 members who have Pakistani and Kashmiri origins. The Labour Party saw the election of Afzal Khan, Imran Hussain, Naz Shah, Yasmin Qureshi, Muhammad Yasin, Tahir Ali, Shabana Mahmood, Zara Sultana, Dr Zubair Ahmed, Naushabah Khan, and Dr Rosena Allin-Khan. Independent candidates Ayoub Khan and Adnan Hussain also secured seats, while Saqib Bhatt and Nusrat Ghani won as Conservative candidates.
Ali Sajjad, whose twice-a-week The Side Mirror column is very popular among English newspaper readership, says that there is often conflict between the parliamentarians of Indian origin and Pakistani origin over local issues, which is quite obvious but the two sides hardly take up the thorny issues like Kashmir to make a point of debate.
“Outside the parliament, both diasporas of India and Pakistan are very active on conflicting issues, such as Kashmir, rice trade mark, trade, etc, but the parliament has rarely seen any meaningful debate on such issues,” says Mr Ali Sajjad, whose newspaper is published from Lahore, Karachi and Islamabad.
He said his newspaper published an interview of Labour Party MP Afzal Khan, where he claimed that political rivals ran a malicious campaign against his party to take advantage of Gaza’s situation.
In an exclusive interview with the Minute Mirror, Afzal Khan, who has always been a former justice, exports and home minister, mostly defended Labour Party leader Keir Stammer’s statements on Gaza, which he said were being distorted and being quoted out of context. There was no mention of Kashmir or Pakistan’s interests in the UK.
“It is true that our position on the ceasefire in Gaza, Islamophobia and immigration might impact upon the results of the elections and in some constituencies the Labour’s votes might go to the Greens, the Liberal Democrats, Communists and George Galloway but I think over 50 percent Muslims might still vote for us. We might lose Muslim votes in some areas, especially in the areas where they constitute a majority or have a very significant presence like Birmingham, Manchester and Bradford,” Afzal Khan had said.
The former Labour MP said that Muslims are also concerned over growing unemployment, National Health System, cost of living and education. “And over these issues we are much better than the Conservatives who have created a mess through their austerity. On international and other issues, we are close to the Greens. So, practically we are a better choice for the Muslim community as compared to the Tories.”
On other hand, Ali Sajjad said, the Indian diaspora, which has coexisted in Britain since the days of the Raj, often raise Kashmir issue to create divisions among Kashmiris. During a recent campaign, Conservative Party candidate Marco Longhi invoked Kashmir to gain votes and attention.
New UK Prime Minister Keir Starmer is working on strengthening strategic ties with India. Earlier, the Jeremy Corbyn-led party called for international observers to enter the Kashmir region after India's revocation of Article 370.
Now, Starmer has also stated that Kashmir is an internal issue between India and Pakistan. Mr Ali Sajjad said his paper, The Minute Mirror, continues to be the voice of Pakistan though diasporas.