A YEAR ago, India revoked Articles 370 and 35-A of its Constitution and annexed the valley of Kashmir to the Indian Union. This was in utter defiance of the aspirations of the Kashmiri people, the values of the global community, and the long-established United Nations Security Council resolutions that pertain to this disputed territory.

Your editorial ‘Kashmir repression’ (Aug 4) is absolutely right in asserting that India-occupied Jammu and Kashmir is confronted with multi-dimensional problems, from the political to the unending human suffering, from the demographic to the financial, and so forth.

It is imperative that Pakistan undertake lobbying and diplomatic initiatives to highlight to the greater global community, the disastrous situation that prevails in the occupied Kashmir.

Until the occupied valley eventually becomes a part and parcel of Pakistan, the least we can do is to take steps to mitigate the sufferings of our occupied Kashmiri brethren. We owe this to our founding fathers, and this is exactly in harmony with the injunctions of our glorious Islamic faith.

The Kashmiris need not deem themselves alone either morally or materially.

A Pakistani
Lahore

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INDIA considers Pakistan’s revised political map an “absurdity”. To convince India of its reality, Pakistan should follow the legislative process to revise the map in Nepal footsteps. Nepal has already distributed 25,000 copies of the latest version of the map around the nation.

Provincial and all other public offices have been given copies free of cost. Interested people can buy it at Nepali rupees 50. Nepal has asked its department of measurement to print 4,000 copies of the updated map in English language and send it to India, the United Nations, and the Google.

Historically, India never cared a fig for the Kashmiris’ right of self-determination. It regarded it as a bargaining chip to be exchanged in a barter deal. Vallabhai Patel offered to exchange Hyderabad and Junagadh for Kashmir. But, Liaquat Ali Khan, then prime minister of Pakistan, refused the offer.

Asghar Khan in his book We have Learnt Nothing from History says: “It is on record that Vallabhai Patel, the powerful minister in Jawaharlal Nehru’s government, had offered to Nawabzada Liaquat Ali khan in 1947, that Pakistan should keep Kashmir and let India have Hyderabad. This offer was then rejected.”

Asghar Khan’s version is corroborated by Kuldip Nayar, in his book Beyond the Lines: An Autobiography, Sirdar Shaukat Hayat Khan in his book The Nation That Lost Its Soul ‘A Tale of Two States’, and by Saifuddin Soz in Kashmir: Glimpses of History & Story of Struggle.

Amjed Jaaved
Rawalpindi

Published in Dawn, August 9th, 2020