LAHORE: Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf Vice-Chairman Shah Mahmood Qureshi has criticised the benchmark set by the government for selecting special envoys on Kashmir.

“Though there are very good people like Sayed Mushahid Husain and Khusro Bakhtiar among the special delegations the question is whether [others] could articulate on the case [of Kashmir] and engage the international media or just confine themselves to photo sessions because of their language and other disabilities?” asks the former foreign minister.

“Are they able to present the issue as a humanitarian crisis in the occupied Kashmir where dozens have been martyred and hundreds of others injured and blinded through the use of pellet guns as the world is already aware of the historical stances of both Pakistan and India? And also whether they have been entrusted with any dossier [on Kashmir] for sharing it with the governments they are supposed to visit?” he says, while talking to Dawn by phone.

Mr Qureshi also laments that the government ignored the opposition parties in the first phase of appointment of the envoys by resorting to “pick and choose” and tried to hurt the very message that the [Pakistani] nation stands united on the issue.

He wonders that none from the PTI, Jamaat-i-Islami (JI) or Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM) – three major opposition parties in the parliament after the PPP – has been given representation while selecting the emissaries.

“Do these parties have a point of view different than that of the nation or, being specific, of the Foreign Office?” he questions.

The PTI leader is also critical of the government for involving the National Assembly speaker’s office in the nomination of the special envoys.

“Framing policies is a job of the government and not of the speaker.”

Published in Dawn, August 30th, 2016