MUZAFFARABAD: Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif will address the special joint sitting of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Legislative Assembly and the AJK Council here on Friday to mark the Kashmir Solidarity Day.

A public meeting would also be held on the premises of the district headquarters complex where Jamaat-i-Islami Pakistan Emir Sirajul Haq will be the chief guest.

Like previous years, symbolic human chains would be formed at all the five points at the border of Pakistan and AJK to manifest the strong bonds of understanding and brotherhood between the Pakistanis and the Kashmiris.

The Solidarity Day, it may be recalled, has become a national event since 1990, when the late Qazi Hussain Ahmed, the then JI Pakistan chief, had given a call for the first time to make it known to the world that the people of Pakistan stood by their Kashmiri brethren, struggling to overthrow India’s illegal rule over the territory.

The call was instantly endorsed by Mr Sharif, who then ruled Punjab, followed by Benazir Bhutto, who headed the central government, thus making Feb 5 a national day.

Ever since, people across Pakistan stage rallies, demonstrations, public meetings and seminars on Feb 5 to express support and solidarity with the Kashmiris braving state-sponsored terrorism while carrying on their just struggle for emancipation.

On Thursday, Parliamentary Kashmir Committee also held a meeting in Muzaffarabad with its chairman and JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman in the chair. The parliamentary body approved several resolutions, whereby it paid rich tributes to the India-held Kashmir people for their dauntless struggle and renewed political, diplomatic and moral support to them on behalf of the people and government of Pakistan.

“The parliamentary Kashmir Committee believes that settlement of Kashmir issue in accordance with the UN resolutions is sine-qua-non for a durable peace in South Asia and calls upon the international community to play its role in getting the right to self-determination granted to the Kashmiris,” it said.

Published in Dawn, February 5th, 2016