LAHORE, Aug 12: National Kashmir Committee chairman Sardar Abdul Qayyum Khan has appealed to all political parties, organizations and intellectuals to evolve a national consensus on the Kashmir issue.

He was speaking at a meeting organized by the Nazaria-i-Pakistan Foundation and the Pakistan Movement Workers Trust at their Aiwan in connection with independence week celebrations here on Monday.

He said that various agendas and proposals for the solution to the Kashmir issue were being put forward by political parties, organizations, intellectuals and columnists which had caused a great confusion. The need of the hour was a national consensus on the issue and all other agendas and proposals should be discarded to remove the confusion, he advised.

He said that President Musharraf’s stand on the Kashmir issue was unambiguous that the Kashmir dispute was not a regional nor a bilateral issue and that Pakistan like India was a party to the dispute which must be settled with the consent of the people of Kashmir.

He said that the president had been making it clear to the world leaders that the issue should be solved by holding negotiations as early as possible.

He said that India had adopted all tactics to suppress the freedom struggle of Kashmiris with the help of 800,000 armed troops in the valley but it had failed to solve the problem. He said that India had now brought its armed forces on the Pakistan borders. War was no solution. Since it was likely to be a nuclear war, it would be disastrous which nobody could win.

Referring to his recent tour of America and Europe, the Kashmir committee chairman said that he had full and frank discussions with the members of thinktanks, journalists, newspaper editors and analysts and he explained to them Pakistan’s stand on the Kashmir issue. He discounted all rumours about the various formulae which the people of Pakistan here believed the US State Department or various thinktanks or other agencies were suggesting for the solution to the Kashmir issue.

He said that he had not heard of any formula during his visit to that country. He said that nobody was prepared to take the responsibility of implementing any formula.

He said that such rumours only added to the confusion and the number of Pakistan’s opponents. He said that any just solution to the Kashmir issue was also in the interest of America.

He criticized the people who said that if there had been no Azad Kashmir, the Kashmir issue would have been solved long ago. He said that Azad Kashmir’s 32,000 square miles area had been liberated by the people of that area from India. It was providing a defence depth to Pakistan otherwise India would have brought its forces right in Pakistan’s northern parts. Azad Kashmir was providing defence line for Pakistan far away from its borders. The situation in Pakistan would have been much different from now without Azad Kashmir, he added.

He also took exception to the PTV news telecast the other day that the people who had killed themselves after the attack on a church missionary school in Murree appeared to be either Kashmiris or Afghans. He said that such news created a wrong impression and the PTV must tender an apology.

Kashmir Action Committee Pakistan president Dr Muzaffar Shah said that the Kashmir issue had entered a crucial phase and all political and religious parties of Pakistan, Kashmiri organizations and intellectuals should extend their support to President Musharraf’s stand on the Kashmir issue. They must also express their solidarity with the people of Kashmir who were looking towards the people of Pakistan for moral support. He said that despite India’s opposition Kashmir had become an international issue and Pakistan should make the best use of this opportunity to get the international support to its stand for the solution to the Kashmir issue. He said that India had got stuckup in Kashmir and was not finding any wayout.

Nazaria Foundation secretary Dr Rafiq Ahmad said that Pakistan was incomplete and its independence was in danger without Kashmir. He recalled Allama Iqbal’s interest in Kashmir as was evident from his verses.

Begum Surrayya Khurshid and Adeeb Javedani also addressed.