LAHORE, Feb 5: Alliance for the Restoration of Democracy president Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan has said that the foreign policy of the government is a total failure and detrimental to Kashmir cause.

Speaking to participants in a Jihad-i-Kashmir rally of the Jamaat-i-Islami on the Shahrah-i-Quaid-i-Azam here on Tuesday, the veteran politician said that the failure of the foreign policy was evident from the fact that no Islamic country had raised its voice against the deployment of the Indian troops on the borders of Pakistan.

He said that the government should have convened an emergent meeting of the Organisation of Islamic Countries for seeking the support of its members during the present crisis but it had not bothered to do so. “When would the Islamic countries stand by Pakistan if they do not do it today?”, he asked.

Nawabzada Nasrullah Khan said that Quaid-i-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah had described Kashmir as the artery of Pakistan and the Kashmiris had always considered themselves a part of the Pakistani nation. Poet philosopher Allama Muhammad Iqbal had formed the first Kashmir Committee before the independence and had taken part in the Kashmiri’s struggle against the Dogra Rulers.

He said that a majority of the Kashmir Assembly had voted for annexation of the territory with Pakistan before the independence because 90 per cent of population in the state comprised the Muslims. Lord Mountbatten and Radcliffe, however, conspired to facilitate the takeover of Kashmir by India by giving Gordaspuir district to it for providing it an access to it.

The ARD president said that Pakistan had come into being on the basis of the two-nation theory and more than 500 states in the Indian sub-continent decided to join India or Pakistan on the same basis. India annexed Hyderabad, Junagadh and Manavador by force on the ground that a majority of the population in these states comprised the Hindus. Kashmir should have become a part of Pakistan on the same ground but India annexed it because its Dogra Rulers wanted the territory to be a part of it.

He said that the Kashmir Committee headed by him had got Kashmir declared a disputed territory by former United Nations secretary-general Butros Butros Ghali. The Labour Party of British Prime Minister Tony Blair had also described the resolution of Kashmir dispute as its moral responsibility and included it in its manifesto before the elections on the ground that it was in power at the time of the partition of India.

The ARD president said that the OIC had also supported the stand of Pakistan on Kashmir in its conferences at Casablanca and Morocco during his tenure as the Kashmir Committee chairman but efforts were not made to keep the OIC interest in the issue alive afterwards and it had decreased to the extent that no Islamic country was raising it voice in favour of Pakistan at a time when Indian troops were deployed on its borders.

JI acting amir Syed Munnawwar Hassan called upon President Pervez Mushharraf to desist from becoming a Yasser Arafat during his forthcoming visit to the United States as the nation would not accept any agreement to declare the Line of Control as the international border.

He said that the “jihad” in Kashmir was indigenous and the number of soldiers lost by the Indian army during the past 13 years was more than three times its total losses during the 1965 and 1971 wars. He said that the government’s request to India for a dialogue was a confession of defeat. He cautioned President Mushharraf against accepting a Nobel Prize for Peace through an Oslo-like agreement as it had driven Yasser Arafat away from his destination.

Syed Munnawwar Hassan said that President Mushharraf should take the nation into confidence about his plans before proceeding to the United States. He said that the government could not weed out the “jihadi” culture and “jihadi” organizations despite all its efforts. The “jihad” was bound to continue under all circumstances. He also demanded the release of Qazi Husain Ahmed, Maulana Fazlur Rahman, Hafiz Muhammad Saeed, Maulana Abdul Ghafoor Haideri and Maulana Abdul Rahman Baloch.

Maulana Shamsur Rahman Moavia, Maulana Abdul Maalik, Mr Hafeezur Rahman, Muhammad Musa Mujahid, Mian Maqsood Ahmed and Khwaja Saad Rafiq also spoke to the participants in the rally which started from the Nasser Bagh and concluded between the Regal Chowk and Faisal Square. A large number of women and children also participated in the rally chanting slogans of “No compromise on Kashmir” and “Anyone who is a friend of America is a traitor.”