LONDON, Jan 22: The European Labour Party on Monday moved a comprehensive set of amendments to overturn the ‘divisive’ and ‘controversial’ Liberal Democrat report on Kashmir prepared by Emma Nicholson, Lib Dem’s Member of the European Parliament.
Addressing a press conference, MEP Richard Howitt, Labour’s Foreign Affairs Spokesman in the European Parliament, said his party had published 54 amendments to the report which he said was “appallingly prejudiced”.
The amendments will be presented at the European Parliament’s Foreign Affairs Committee in Brussels over the next two days.
Answering a question, he said it would be a tragedy if the report was endorsed by the European Parliament in its present form and content, but thought the task of getting it amended to make it more balanced was an uphill one and he did not rule out the possibility of failure.
Pointing out some of the defects in Emma Nicholson’s report, he said for the Lib Dem rapporteur to criticise the Pakistani government in its efforts to deal with the aftermath of the horrific 2005 earthquake “is a disgrace and insult to the memory of the tens of thousands who lost their lives and the millions left homeless”.
