MUZAFFARABAD: President Dr Arif Alvi on Friday said that Pakistan stood for peace and it had done its best for improving the situation in the region, but its relations with India would never improve without settlement of the longstanding Kashmir dispute.

Speaking at a special session of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Legislative Assembly to mark Kashmir Solidarity Day, Dr Alvi said Pakistan had always given peace a chance to prevail and it would continue to do so because peace was its top-most priority.

However, he said, India should not spoil the atmosphere by denying Kashmiris their legitimate rights and resorting to provocative actions like that of the Balakot attack of February 2019.

“If India can attack Pakistan by crossing the international border, we are afraid it’s desperate to wage a war,” he said, warning that a war between two nuclear-armed states would be disastrous for humanity.

The president regretted that India was being governed by a jingoist regime, which could resort to genocide in Kashmir because the indicators today were almost the same as existed before the Holocaust.

President addresses special session of AJK Legislative Assembly on Solidarity Day

“But our message to the whole world, particularly India, is that we are with the Kashmiris and we will never leave them alone… We will keep on repeating this [message] before the international community.”

President Alvi pointed out that the only one solution to the Kashmir issue lay in the UN charter and the UN resolutions and added that this message should also reach the US where a change had taken place [in presidential elections].

Tracing history, he said that India was an “irresponsible nuclear power” which had lately spent Rs22 billion to defame Pakistan, as exposed by EU DisinfoLab.

“From Pulwama attack to EU DisinfoLab report, it has become clear that intrusion into Pakistan’s airspace and subsequent loss of Indian jets were all designed to win India’s elections,” he added.

He said Muslim movements, including that of Kashmir freedom struggle, were wrongly linked with terrorism in the aftermath of 9/11 and India had taken its full advantage.

Recalling the return of Indian pilot as a goodwill gesture, President Alvi said if India wanted to improve the environment in the region it should resort to meaningful dialogue.

“Prime Minister Imran Khan has already said that if India moves one step, Pakistan will move two steps. But India avoids dialogue under one or other pretext.”

President Alvi dismissed notion by some countries that Kashmir was a bilateral issue between India and Pakistan. “It’s neither an issue of territory nor that of water. It’s an issue of people, the children, the men, the women and the families of the martyrs and other victims of unrelenting Indian repression,” he said.

He said India had closed the doors of occupied Kashmir on all outsiders because it wanted to hide atrocities unleashed on innocent and defenceless Kashmiris by its brute army.

Contrary to this, he said, AJK was open for everyone and complete peace prevailed here. Responding to speeches made by leaders of different parliamentary parties, the president listed some tasks that he said should be done by the Kashmiris and Pakistan in unison with each other as well as by the international community.

“India should be forced to open occupied Kashmir for the outside world. Though we have never recognised articles 370 and 35-A of the Indian constitution, the demographic changes in occupied and disputed territories are, however, a sheer violation of the UN charter and should be stopped,” he said.

Mr Alvi said the world should also take strict measures in the light of the UN Human Rights Commission report and the UN military observers, who were free to maintain presence and move in Pakistan and AJK and they should be given free access to Indian occupied Kashmir also.

“On our part, we will continuously raise India’s harrowing actions in occupied Kashmir at all important global forums, such as the UN and the OIC…Last but not the least is our message to the Kashmiris is that we will carry on our struggle at diplomatic, political and moral fronts. The stand which Pakistan has taken on Kashmir in 73 years, irrespective of the change of governments, will continue,” he said.

Dr Alvi asserted that there was unity in Pakistan regarding the ultimate direction vis-a-vis Kashmir issue.

“There might be some difference of opinion on the strategy, but there is no divide and no differences.”

Earlier, AJK Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider, Leader of the Opposition Chaudhry Muh­ammad Yasin, Muslim Confer­ence leader Sardar Attique Ahmed Khan, Jamaat-i-Islami leader Abdul Rashid Turabi and Jammu Kashmir Peoples Party leader Sardar Hassan Ibrahim also spoke.

Earlier, after his arrival in AJK, President Alvi and AJK leaders held a walk behind a big banner from the helipad to the assembly premises where a police contingent presented him with a salute.

Later, President Alvi went to the AJK Presidency where he held a meeting with a delegation of All-Party Hurriyat Con­ference, during which AJK President Sardar Masood Khan was also present.

Published in Dawn, February 6th, 2021