February 7, 2006	Tuesday	Muharram 8, 1427

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ISLAMABAD, Feb 6: The ongoing confidence building measures between India and Pakistan will prove futile if the exclusion of Kashmiris from the peace process continued. This was the consensus at a seminar on Kashmir organized by the Institute of Strategic Studies here on Monday.

“Who are Pakistan and India to decide about the fate of Kashmiris, while leaving the latter out of the peace process,” asked MNA Hamid Nasir Chattha, chairman of the special committee of the parliament on Kashmir.

He said the CBMs could not gain the trust of Kashmiris because Pakistan and India were playing cricket at a time when the Kashmir Solidarity Day was being observed in the country. “In such a situation, the people of Kashmir would continue their indigenous struggle to achieve their right to self- determination.”

“Governments come and go; however, no government in Pakistan could afford to sideline the issue of Kashmir because not only the opposition parties but also the whole nation is united on this issue,” Mr Chattha said.

He condemned the fencing of Line of Control by India, saying it was not an international border and India had no right to erect fence on it.

He said India always talked of democracy in the held Kashmir, adding that if India was so confident that a majority of the Kashmiris wanted to live with it then why it was refraining from holding a plebiscite in the state. He said not only the UN resolutions but also Indian leaders including Jawahar Lal Nehru and Ghandi had recognized the Kashmiris’ right to self- determination.

Pakistan Muslim League Secretary-General Mushahid Hussain Sayed said some important peace opportunities were missed by the US after 9/11 due to which the situation in the Middle East and Afghanistan had deteriorated.

“In March 2002, King Abdullah presented his peace plan at a meeting of the Arab League in Beirut, asking Israel to withdraw from the occupied territories and accept the independence of Palestine. Had Israel accepted this offer, the Muslim countries would have recognized it,” he claimed.

Similarly, former Iranian president Mohammad Khatami’s government fully cooperated with the US in the removal of Taliban and also Saddam Hussein. However, he added, in January 2002 Iran was bracketed in the axis of evils.

After the removal of Taliban, Afghan President Hamid Karzai asked the US to offer amnesty to the Taliban including Mulla Umar, but the offer was rejected by the Pentagon, he maintained.

Pakistani and Indian leadership should take some bold decisions to solve the issue of Kashmir as President Pervez Musharraf has presented various proposals for this purpose and we should not miss this opportunity, he added.

He said opportunities of peace missed in Afghanistan, Kashmir, Palestine, Iran, Iraq and Algeria had created immense difficulties and led to terrorism and violence.

ISSI Chairman Inamul Haq said withdrawal of troops from Kashmir was also included in the UN resolutions. He narrated the brutalities committed against the Kashmiris by Dogras and later by the Indian governments.

MNA Dr Attiya Inayatullah, PML-N leader Raja Nadir Pervez, MMA leader Prof Khurshid Ahmed and a number of other speakers warned the international community that any peace move between India and Pakistan that compromised on the Kashmiris’ right to self- determination would fail and result in a fresh wave of violence in the region.