Nawaz Sharif claims Kashmir an unfinished agenda

Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif on Monday called Kashmir an unfinished agenda of Partition.

In a meeting here with Pakistan Muslim League (Nawaz)’s presidential candidate for Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, Masood Khan, Prime Minister Sharif said the United Nations must intervene to resolve this issue.

Mr Sharif appreciated the role of Masood Khan in highlighting the Kashmir dispute during his various diplomatic assignments, particularly during his tenure as permanent representative of Pakistan to the UN.

Meanwhile, on Monday, responding to Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Independence Day speech, Sartaj Aziz, adviser to Prime Minister on foreign affairs, said that Mr Modi was only trying to divert world attention from the grim tragedy that has been unfolding in Kashmir over the past five weeks.

“Thousands of unarmed youth are protesting every day for their right of self determination. More than 70 innocent Kashmiris have been killed and more than 6,000 injured. There is constant curfew and complete media blackout for the past 37 days. These events have nothing to do with terrorism,” he said.

He claimed that at this time, the contrast between Kashmir and PoK could not be more stark.

Prime Minister Modi’s reference to Balochistan, which is an integral part of Pakistan, he said only proves Pakistan’s contention that India, through its main intelligence agency Research and Analysis Wing (RAW), has been fomenting terrorism in Balochistan”

Mr Aziz claimed that India’s involvement was confirmed by the public confession of “RAW’s active service Naval Officer” Kulbhushan Jadhav, who was arrested in March this year from Balochistan.

“India is a large country, in fact the second largest in the world and this must be acknowledged, but a large country does not automatically become a great country, especially when it unleashes such brute force against innocent citizens to suppress their right to protest or when it deliberately uses pallet guns to permanently destroy the eye sight of over 100 youth,” he added.

Mr Aziz said India should recognise that the core issue of Kashmir cannot be resolved by bullets. “It requires a political solution, through serious negotiations between India and Pakistan.”

Also on Monday, Pakistan’s National Assembly was informed that India was not fully abiding by the provisions of the Indus Water Treaty in its true letter and spirit. Minister of State for Water and Power Abid Sher Ali told the House during question hour that India was constructing a number of run-of-river hydroelectric plants on the western rivers. He said these plants were mostly in violation of the design criteria specified by the Indus Waters Treaty. He said all the cases where the violations are being noticed the issues are being taken up with India for amicable resolution at the level of Permanent Indus Commission. He said in case of non-cooperation by India at this level, the matter was taken up at both the governments’ level. He said in case of failure at this level the cases are referred to the World Bank for appointment of neutral experts or the Court of Arbitration as per the provision of the treaty. Abid Sher Ali said that the government is fully cognizant of all the issues and these are being taken up at appropriate forums according to the procedure laid down in the treaty.