LAHORE, Oct 3: Punjab PPP-SB president Dr Mubashir Hasan says the Indian government has erred in refusing a visa to former AJK chief justice Abdul Majid Malik who wanted to participate in a conference in New Delhi called by the Centre for Dialogue and Reconciliation.
“The refusal is a blow to the peace process between Pakistan and India and to a quest for a solution to the Kashmir issue,” he said in a press statement here on Monday.
Apparently, Dr Hasan said, Justice Malik had refused to apply for a Pakistani passport as he had declared himself a citizen of Jammu and Kashmir.
“There is no way for him and millions of others living in the AJK to travel abroad except on a Pakistani passport. They make applications but see to it that the passport issued to them on behalf of the president of Pakistan explicitly mentions that they are natives of Jammu and Kashmir.”
Dr Hasan said: “Such applications are factually and legally correct.” Very sensibly and true to its stand that the entire former State of Jammu and Kashmir is a disputed territory, he reminded that Pakistan issued visas in large numbers to the persons living in Jammu and Kashmir.
“The Indian government’s stand on the question is ludicrous. On the one hand it lays a claim to the territory of Azad Kashmir, but in practice tells eminent residents of Azad Kashmir that India will let them visit New Delhi if they call themselves Pakistani.”
He said: “It is a stupidity that the people of Azad Kashmir cannot but take notice of.”
Dr Hasan said even more serious was the implication that the refusal of visa to Justice Malik meant some change in the policy enunciated by Prime Minister Manmohan Singh. In a statement a few months back, he had de-emphasized the importance of borders.
Whatever he might have meant, many inferred that in their confidential negotiations Pakistan and India were considering ways to reunify the former State of Jammu and Kashmir, he said.
He said only a few months ago, Justice Malik had visited Srinagar, Jammu and New Delhi on the same passport.
“Now, what has changed? Who has blinked Pakistan or India? Have they gone back to thinking of some kind of division of the disputed state?” the PPP-SB leader said, demanding that both countries should clarify their stand. He said India must rectify its error and issue Justice Malik a visa.