January 18, 2007	Thursday	Zilhaj 27, 1427

ISLAMABAD, January 17: The over 400 amendment proposals received by the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee Secretariat for the controversial draft report on Kashmir are likely to delay the process of its adoption, if not making it doubtful, diplomatic sources told Dawn on Wednesday.

Indications from Brussels are that the adoption of the report may now go into April. According to the earlier schedule the committee was to hold discussions on the amendment proposals on Jan 24-25 for adoption of the report on Jan 30 and the European Parliament’s (EP) plenary session would debate it on March 27.

However, after the unexpected barrage of amendment proposals received by the Jan 10 deadline set for it, the schedule would have to be revised, informed sources said.

While diplomatic sources confirmed that the number of amendment proposals submitted to the Committee exceeded 400, the exact figure could not be ascertained.

However, on Kashmir this is definitely the first EU draft report that has impelled so many amendment proposals, signalling that major modifications are in the offing.

The draft report titled: ‘Kashmir: present situation and future prospects’ was presented to the European Parliament’s (EP) Foreign Affairs Committee in November 2006 by rapporteur Baroness Emma Nicholson, a British MEP and vice-chairperson of the Committee. It brushed aside the demand for plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir calling it “wholly out of step” and against the ‘interests’ of the people there.

The draft report was widely criticised by the Kashmiri people on both sides of the divide, the Kashmiri diaspora and Pakistan for ignoring the fundamentals of the Kashmir dispute. Pakistan had conveyed its serious reservations about the report to Baroness Emma Nicholson and the European Union at various levels. Following the uproar over the 10-page report the EP’s foreign affairs committee extended the deadline for submitting amendment proposals to Jan 10, 2007.