KARACHI: Prime Minister Liaquat Ali Khan in a broadcast to the nation last night [May 25] made it clear … that Pakistan will not accept any other decision on the Kashmir issue except that which guaranteed “free voting right to the people of Kashmir”. Making a stirring call to the 80-million-strong nation for “complete unity” since “Pakistan’s enemies are still active and she is not yet out of danger”, [he] made the historic statement: “No power on earth can shake my faith that Pakistan’s glorious achievements will one day be written in letters of gold in the history of the world.”

[The prime minister], accusing India of adopting a “stringent attitude towards the peaceful solution of the Kashmir problem”, warned that India’s efforts to avoid a plebiscite in Kashmir could not succeed because “all the machinations and contrivances set afoot for the suppression of truth and justice must always fail”. Maintaining that Pakistan had “scrupulously” adhered to the cease-fire terms, while the Indian Army had violated the agreement, he stated that Pakistan … [took] action on certain items before time, such as the withdrawal of the tribal people from Kashmir.

Published in Dawn, May 26th, 2024