July 25, 2003	Friday	Jumadi-ul-Awwal 24, 1424

Please Visit our Sponsor (Ads open in separate window).

WASHINGTON, July 24: Azad Kashmir and occupied Kashmir should elect a joint assembly on the pattern of the European Parliament while maintaining their own separate status, says Dr Subramniam Swamy, an Indian delegate to a two-day international conference on Kashmir, which began here on Thursday.

Mr Swamy’s proposal was one of several discussed at the conference, which brought together scholars, politicians and journalists from Pakistan, India and the United States to suggest how to resolve the Kashmir dispute.

Mr Swamy, president of the Janata Party and a former minister for commerce and law, also proposed retaining the two state assembles that currently exist while allowing the joint assembly to deal with the subjects already agreed upon between the two parties.

More than 500,000 Hindu pundits, who left the Valley during the current uprising, should be allowed to return and vote for the new assemblies, he said.

Mr Swamy, whose plan was des-cribed as “rather ambitious” by former information minister, Mushahid Hussain, also suggested removing all travel restriction between the two zones of Kashmir over a period of two years.

Instead of passports, Kashmiris should be allowed to use their voter registration cards for moving across the Line of Control.

Once this is achieved, the two countries should work out common market and free trade arrangements through the SAARC. Cross-registration of university students should be permitted. Joint ventures should be encouraged in information technology and pharmaceuticals, Mr Swamy said.

Finally, at the end of ten years, India and Pakistan should work to have a joint South Asian parliament with a charter on division of subjects for legislation. Other South Asian nations, along with Afghanistan and Myanmar, could be persuaded to join this parliament as well, he added.

Mr Swamy, however, does not stop there. He proposes that after resolving the Kashmir issue, India and Pakistan should determine whether they want to proceed further to even greater unity in the Sub-continent.

Mushahid Hussain, who spoke after him, pointed out that such ambitious plans could not be implemented in a void. First, there has to be a period of cooling that allows both the countries to normalize their relations before they could discuss such visionary proposals, he said.

“Our Indian friends need to have a big heart that goes along with their big vision,” he said while urging India to take concrete steps to resolve the Kashmir dispute.

The sufferings of the people of Kashmir, he said, could not be ignored because “like Kosovo, Kashmir is not in Europe or it does not have oil”.

Mr Hussain said Maulana Fazlur Rahman’s recent visit to India conveyed an important message to the world that “today there’s no constituency in Pakistan that favours confrontation with India. The army, the political parties and even the MMA want peace with India”.

“But there are groups in India who do not want peace with Pakistan,” he said.

Thursday’s main speaker, Rajmohan Gandhi, a grandson of Mahatama Gandhi, was explicit in advocating India’s known position on Kashmir. He told the audience that India would not accept any change in the territorial status of Kashmir.

“Any Indian prime minister who says that Kashmir could merge with Pakistan or become an independent state will cease to be a prime minister even before he finishes his sentence,” said Rajmohan.

“This is today’s political reality. Yesterday’s political reality was that India granted the right of self-determination to the people of Kashmir at the United Nations. But today’s reality is different.”

He also said the Kashmiri resistance would have to give up “violence” if it wants to have a positive impact on the public opinion in India and the West. “Killing innocent women and children does not help. They will have to think of other methods,” he said.

One of the methods for moving forward is to welcome the peace initiatives taken by India and Pakistan and work on these initiatives to strengthen the current peace process, said Mr Gandhi.

Sardar Abdul Qayyum Khan, the former president of Azad Kashmir, said the violence in held Kashmir was the result of Indian occupation and urged all three parties __ India, Pakistan and the Kashmiris __ to work together to develop a roadmap for peace in Kashmir.

“If we go back to allegations and counter-allegations, we will further contaminate the atmosphere. If we want the violence to stop, we will have to work on the pace process,” said Sardar Qayyum.

Almost all the speakers welcomed the recent moves initiated by the President Pervez Musharraf and Indian Prime Minister Atal Behari Vajpayee for reducing tension.

Senator Tom Harkin, who jointly organized the conference with the Association of Humanitarian Lawyers and the Kashmir American Council, urged India and Pakistan to accelerate the peace process. Kashmir, he said, remains a nuclear flashpoint and both countries need to increase their efforts to peacefully resolve the dispute.

Congressman Joseph R. Pitts, who is also one of the organizers, said the region of Kashmir “has been filled with humanitarian suffering and extended violence, and it is one that has brought two nuclear powers to the brink of war”.