Pakistan Prime Minister, Mian Muhammad Nawaz Sharif’s, special envoys on Jammu and Kashmir called for plebiscite in J&K on the pattern of East Timor.Pakistan Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed and member National Assembly, Dr Shazra Mansab, held a meeting with Ambassador Richard Olson, the US Special Representative on Afghanistan and Pakistan and other senior officials at the US Department of State.Ambassador Jalil Abbas Jilani accompanied the Special Envoys, a statement issued by the Foreign Office of Pakistan posted on its website said.The statement said that Hussain and Mansab apprised the US officials that the people of Jammu and Kashmir were exercising their democratic right to protest against the continued suppression of their legitimate right to self-determination promised by the United Nations Security Council in multiple resolutions.“The US side was informed that the on-going people’s movement in Kashmir was completely indigenous and spontaneous. It gained further momentum after the extra judicial killing of a young Kashmiri freedom lover Burhan Wani,” the statement quoted the envoys as having said.Sharif’ Special Envoys shared “carefully documented evidence of brutalities and the systematic human rights violations being perpetrated by forces against” the innocent civilians in Kashmir which was the most heavily militarized zone on earth, the statement informed.
“It was highlighted how the use of pellet guns and other prohibited weapons were being used by the Indian authorities to suppress the voice of the Kashmiri people. Besides, several other fundamental rights of Kashmiri civilians including their right to assemble, worship and practice their faith were being denied,” they said.The envoys reminded the US officials that it was India which took the case of Jammu and Kashmir to the United Nations in 1948. They argued that present struggle of the people of Kashmir was a “result of their frustration and disappointment over lack of fulfilment of their legally and diplomatically promised right of plebiscite to determine their future”.“The United States, being permanent member of the UN Security Council, was both legally and morally bound to play its role in ensuring that the people of Kashmir are able to exercise their inalienable right to self-determination in the same spirit granted by the international community to the people of East Timor a few years ago. The Special Envoys also stressed the need for activation of the United Nations Military Observer Group for India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) to monitor the ceasefire violations on the India side,” the FO statement added.In wake of the heightened tension in South Asia, it was agreed that early solution of the Kashmir dispute was necessary for lasting peace and stability in the region. (CNS)