LAHORE: The PPP has suggested that its chairman, Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari, should be appointed head of the National Assembly’s Kashmir Committee to highlight the issue effectively at the international forums.

“If the government wishes to draw attention of the world towards the Kashmir dispute, it should appoint Bilawal Bhutto as chairman of the Kashmir Committee because the international community pays attention to what he says,” PPP Punjab secretary general Chaudhry Manzoor Ahmad suggested.

Speaking at a camp set up by the party at the Charing Cross on The Mall here on Tuesday to show solidarity with the Kashmiris, he said the government could not resolve the Kashmir issue as “it lacked strategy”.

Maulana Fazlur Rehman, chief of his own faction of the Jamiat Ulema-i-Islam, had been heading the Kashmir Committee during the PPP and PML-N tenures. Except the Law and Justice Committee no other standing committee of the National Assembly had been formed so far. In parliamentary democracies these bodies are considered the “parliament at work”.

Referring to the 18th Amendment, Mr Manzoor said that during its tenure the PPP had devolved a number of powers to the provinces and the present government needed to learn how to play its role without encroaching upon or withdrawing these powers. He alleged that the government damaged the national economy because of its poor policies, as each sector was facing a crisis these days.

Meanwhile, PPP information secretary Hassan Murtaza said the Kashmiris were being meted out inhumane treatment by the Indian forces, but these cruelties were not being highlighted around the world. He said the PPP never backtracked on the Kashmir issue and it was sticking to the stance it had taken when Zulfikar Ali Bhutto was the prime minister.

Aslam Gill and Azizur Rehman Chan also spoke to the workers, who joined the solidarity camp.

Published in Dawn, February 6th, 2019