ISLAMABAD, Oct 22: A group of Pakistani journalists on Thursday told the Senate Foreign Relations Committee that the people of the Indian Occupied Kashmir immensely loved Pakistan and wanted it to adopt a clear-cut policy on Kashmir.
Secretary General Pakistan Muslim League and Chairman Senate Foreign Relations Committee Mushahid Hussain presided over the committee meeting. The journalists told the meeting that people in the Occupied Kashmir bore overwhelming sentiments for Pakistan and were irreversibly alienated from India.
They said the people there wished to be reunited with their relatives living in Pakistan and for this reason they wanted restoration of the Jammu-Muzaffarabad bus service.
Giving an overview of the tour, the Safma secretary-general and leader of a team of Pakistani journalists that visited Occupied Kashmir, Imtiaz Alam, said the people in Srinagar lived under the shadows of guns and immense military deployment.
He said the officials of Jammu Chamber of Commerce wished opening of the road linking Jammu and Sialkot. He said the students of Jammu University demanded freedom even in presence of their teachers some of whom could have links with the RSS.
Talat Hussain said some political parties such as the National Conference were in favour of maximum autonomy from New Delhi. He said these parties wanted to remain within the Indian constitution and added that this trend was the result of the 1971 events when Pakistan broke up. After this event, the Occupied Kashmir people felt that they had lost a valuable friend.
Mariana Babar said the common man there had great expectations from Pakistan but wanted a consistent policy on Kashmir. She felt that a vast majority of people were skeptical of Pakistan-India dialogue. "We are being used as bargaining chips (in the dialogue) but we want our voices to be heard," she was articulating the desire of Kashmiris to be part of the dialogue from which they felt excluded.
Nusrat Javeed said it was about time that we showed greater love for the people of Kashmir who always felt alienated from India. He said the opening of Jammu-Srinagar bus route would reconnect them with Pakistan, specially Punjab.
The committee chairman, Senator Mushahid Hussain, lauded the presentation of the journalists. Senator Prof Khurshid Ahmed said earlier he had reservations about the visit of journalists to the Indian Held Kashmir but, after hearing them, he had changed his mind and felt that this was a positive initiative.
