Azad Jammu & Kashmir Prime Minister SardarAttique Ahmad Khan has urged the Pakistan government to actively pursue the cause of Kashmiris whose struggle, he maintained, has entered a decisive stage. Addressing a meeting of Kashmiri refugees at Gujranwala on Saturday, he warned that India had planned to turn Pakistan into a barren land by building a series of dams on the Chenab in the upper reaches in the illegally occupied state. One would have thought that we would send special envoys abroad to aid our diplomatic missions to apprise foreign governments of New Delhis mischief. But, somehow, to the amazement of not only our people but also of quite a few others, we have demonstrated criminal inaction with regard to the damming of waters on which we have legitimate, internationally accepted right of use as well as by putting the entire issue of Kashmir on the backburner at a time when the Indian held part is literally burning. Instead, we should have been doubly active in extending the people moral, political and diplomatic support. It is also a pity that the world has, for sheer materialistic reasons, turned a blind eye to the plight of the people of Kashmir, who are smarting under the cruel hold of their land by India. The pity is all the greater because the world is committed to provide them an opportunity to decide about their future through a UN-sponsored free and fair plebiscite as required under the relevant resolutions of the United Nations Security Council, and yet it is letting them suffer in order to please India with the purpose of gaining access to its huge emerging market. This attitude of neglect makes the international community guilty of working against the very raison dtre of the establishment of the UN i.e., the maintenance of peace in the world. For, the people in the occupied state have not had the luxury of experiencing peace for decades; their struggle against the Indian yoke has invariably brought death and destruction upon them. And that brings us to the question of the protection of human rights. Human rights bodies have, no doubt, presented harrowing details of how the beleaguered occupied people are routinely dealt with: kidnappings, holding them incommunicado in prison without trial, torture and deaths. Yet, powerful states, which are under greater obligation to prevent these atrocities and could exercise their influence with New Delhi on this count, have generally thought it fit to remain silent, and if ever they have done anything, it has been too perfunctory to be of much effect. SardarAttiques call to help in the Kashmir cause and warning about the construction of reservoirs on the Chenab must be taken seriously. Since we have been casually treating the core issue, it is giving rise to other equally grave problems, and unless we stand up to achieve our goal, it is not only the Kashmiris who would be the losers, but also Pakistan and its people.