LAHORE, Dec 22: The acting chief justice of Jammu and Kashmir High Court, Justice Vijay Kumar Jhanji, has said his court has not been receiving Kashmir-specific human rights’ violation complaints and the frequency of the abuse of such rights is not dissimilar to the other Indian states.
“I do not think that the state of Jammu and Kashmir has more human rights’ violation complaints than anywhere else in the region; we haven’t heard that women are being raped and Kashmiris butchered as some sections of media are reporting. This is a mere propaganda, Justice Jhanji said while talking to reporters up on his arrival here on Monday at the head of a 59-member delegation of Indian jurists for a five-day goodwill visit to Pakistan.
The chief justice said Kashmir was certainly a dispute between India and Pakistan and it could only be resolved through dialogue. It was heartening that the two sides had now shown their will to settle their outstanding issues by sitting across the table and talking, he said.
“There can be no other way to remove misunderstandings and usher in an era of harmony and friendship, as the leadership of the two countries have now decided to tread,” Justice Jhanji said.
He said Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee was scheduled to attend the next Saarc summit conference in Islamabad and it had given the people of both sides of the political divide a renewed hope of ushering in a new era of relationship between the two neighbouring countries.
The acting chief justice said the State Human Rights Commission and the National Human Right Commission were doing a lot in improving the life of the people in India and it was taking care of such issues like in other Indian states. “The high court also took up such issues as and when they arose and such complaints were not unusual, but a matter of routine.”
As for the issue of Kashmir, Justice Jhanji said if it was to be settled under the United Nations resolutions or through some other means, he did not want to make a comment. But one thing was there that “talks in cordial atmosphere are the best way of solving efforts in history.”
Pakistan and India were also following that path and this would be in the good of the people, who had suffered much beyond their patience, he added.
Indian jurists were accorded a warm welcome at the Wagah border on a cold and misty morning. They were received by Punjab Advocate-General Syed Shabbar Raza Razvi, Punjab Bar Council vice-chairperson Arif Chaudhry and Mr Abus Salam Khawar, a member of the Lahore High Court inspection team as a representative of Chief Justice Iftikhar Husain Chaudhry. A number of government law officers and members of the provincial bar council were also present.
The delegation includes MP Sant Ram Singla, who is also the chairperson of the Punjab Agricultural Marketing Board with the status of union minister, Bhupindra Singh Hooda, opposition leader in the Haryana Assembly, and Shadi Lal Batra, MLA Punjab. Punjab Advocate-general Harbhagwan Singh and Dr Anmol Rattan Sidhu, president Punjab-Haryana High Court Bar Association, were also part of the delegation.
The Indian guests seemed excited in arriving here, which is the birth city of many jurists. They hugged the Lahore lawyers who garlanded them profusely. Many, particularly women, had tears in eyes and some of them bowed to touch the land, which they had left many decades ago.
The delegation was given a warm welcome by the Lahore High Court chief justice, who hosted for them a lunch reception where journalists were not allowed.