India says expects to gain control over Pakistan Kashmir one day

India says expects to gain control over Pakistan Kashmir one day

September 17, 2019

 NEW DELHI — India's foreign minister said on Tuesday that the part of Kashmir controlled by Pakistan belongs to India and that he expected India to gain physical control over it one day, raising the rhetoric over the territorial dispute.

India rules the heavily populated Kashmir Valley while Pakistan controls a wedge of territory in the west that New Delhi describes as Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK).

"Our position on PoK is, has always been and will always be very clear. PoK is part of India and we expect one day that we will have the jurisdiction, physical jurisdiction over it," Foreign Minister Subrahmanyam Jaishankar told a news conference.

Last month, New Delhi abrogated the special status of Muslim-majority Kashmir in its part in a bid to integrate the territory fully into India, move that has prompted protests and anger in Kashmir and Pakistan.

Twice the two countries, both nuclear-armed, have gone to war over Kashmir. Pakistan has condemned India's decision to change Kashmir's status and said India's crackdown on protests and dissent there will drive more of the world's Muslims into extremism.

But Jaishankar said revoking Kashmir's special rights was an internal Indian matter and that the only issue on the table was an end to cross-border terrorism from Pakistan. — Reuters

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Game over for Pakistan’s invisible forces, By IMAD ZAFAR

Game over for Pakistan’s invisible forces, By IMAD ZAFAR

been prevalent on the power chessboard of Pakistan, but now it is at a peak. The reason is that the nerve-racking battle between the mighty establishment and former prime minister Nawaz Sharif has entered the final stage.

No one wants to lose this battle, as Sharif has put everything at risk including the life and future of his daughter Maryam Nawaz, while the military establishment’s 70-year hegemony is under threat, as slowly and gradually Sharif with the help of his political allies is forcing the establishment into a dead-end street.

No one could have thought that only 14 months after sending Sharif to prison the security establishment would start backtracking from the power chessboard.

The Pakistani establishment is not simply powerful in its own right, with the controlled media and hegemony over state resources, but the current engineered discourse has been backed by Riyadh and Washington. Not a single analyst could have predicted that a regime backed by these superpowers could be defeated. However, all that changed when the establishment proved incapable of pre-empting India’s annexation of Kashmir. That proved to be the last nail in the coffin of the current political discourse.

According to whistleblowers in the power corridors who do not wish to be named, there is a rift within the security establishment, with many high-ranking officials wanting not only an end to military involvement in political matters but for certain heads to roll. The announcement by Fazal-ur-Rehman, president of the Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam (F) party, of a planned “long march” to Islamabad in October and to hold a sit-in there is not a coincidence by any means. It is believed by many whistleblowers that Fazal has the backing of certain quarters within the establishment who do not want the current dispensation to continue. These people are angry over the Kashmir fiasco and the political engineering that resulted in the current political and economic turmoil in Pakistan.

However, as no one likes to give up power easily, this final round is getting uglier and uglier, with the establishment trying to persuade Sharif not to join Fazal’s long march and instead offering him deals, including new general elections in 2020 with Sharif and his daughter given a clean chit. On the other hand, Shahbaz Sharif, who is currently heading the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz in the absence of his older brother Nawaz and Maryam, is being asked to persuade Nawaz to accept the deal. Some compliant journalists and pro-establishment politicians are spreading misinformation about Sharif accepting the deal to get new elections in return for not backing Fazal, and that he and Maryam will leave the country for a while.

Since propaganda plays a very crucial role in determining the outcome of political battles, it it probable that the establishment is using this as its last tool to recoup a game it has already lost. However, Senator Mushahid Ullah Khan, a member of PML-N, is of a different view. He told this correspondent that Sharif would never accept any deal, especially now that he has nothing left to lose and the establishment has everything to lose. Perhaps he is right: Sharif has lost his wife and his daughter and political heir Maryam Nawaz is in jail, while his own character has been assassinated. So it is the establishment that has everything to lose. It has no answer as to why the government it sponsored, headed by Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI), is not able to avert the economic turmoil and why there has been no sound response from Pakistan over the issue of Kashmir.

This itself is a victory for Sharif as he has been in prison for 14 months, and yet he and Maryam remain the key subjects of the TV talk shows and newspaper headlines. The inexperienced Prime Minister Imran Khan has also played into the hands of Maryam Nawaz. He not only kept Sharif alive politically by trying to hold him responsible for the PTI government’s failures but he also became unnerved by the huge public gatherings in support of Maryam.

So right now the establishment is fighting to continue its hegemony over state affairs while Sharif only needs to sit and bide his time. Meanwhile Fazal is gearing up for a massive show in Islamabad and the Kashmir issue is putting immense pressure on the establishment.

Only a man with no political acumen can make a deal with a regime that is already sinking under its own weight and errors. The Pakistan Peoples Party is an example in this regard, having succumbed to establishment pressure and betrayed the opposition many times, most recently by announcing that it will not join Fazal’s protest. Perhaps the PPP in return will get a little relief but in the long run, it will remain limited to the Sindh interior as far as electoral politics is concerned.

A defiant Sharif was always going to checkmate the establishment, even from behind prison walls. But the establishment perhaps fell prey to its own propaganda and somehow started living in the hallucination that Sharif was history and the invisible forces had won the battle. The journalists who always go with the wind also kept both Khan and the establishment in the illusion of a victory that never was real but only limited to the TV screens and newspapers.

ECP ruling favors Maryam

On Tuesday, the Election Commission of Pakistan (ECP) announced its verdict on a petition for the disqualification of Maryam Nawaz as a vice-president of her party. The petition was dismissed, and she carry on as the de facto head the PML-N. But that is not likely the end of the story: Look for the pro-establishment news channels to propagate very soon that the ECP ruling is evidence that Sharif has accepted a deal.

However, in reality, Sharif is as defiant as he was before, and it seems he will eventually risk everything to win the battle for democratic supremacy in the country. The only thing Sharif needs is patience. Whether he backs Fazal’s protest or not is irrelevant, as if a prisoner is being approached to make a deal with the establishment, this clearly shows who is actually winning the battle. It is just now a matter of Sharif keeping his nerve, while the establishment will need a miracle to get out of this self-created catch-22 position.

Many observers and analysts a year and a half ago believed that the party was over for Sharif, as not only would he be sent packing but his PML-N would also be dismantled and the establishment would prevail, and many analysts endorsed Imran Khan. Perhaps they now will realize that the party was never over for Sharif but in fact the events of a year and a half ago were the beginning of the end – “game over” for the establishment on the power chessboard.

https://www.asiatimes.com/2019/09/opinion/party-was-never-over-however-it-is-game-over-for-the-invisible-forces/

Presentation of Dr Shabir Choudhry in UN Human Rights Council 42 Session, Room 21, Geneva, 12 September 2019

Presentation of Dr Shabir Choudhry in UN Human Rights Council 42 Session, Room 21, Geneva, 12 September 2019

Mr Chairman, friends and colleagues peace and blessings on all of you.

We people of Jammu and Kashmir are lucky. We have a beautiful land, which is full of resources, with very important strategic location.

But we are unlucky that we are occupied by 3 nuclear states, which have imperialist designs against our motherland.

Our one neighbour, Pakistan, told us you are part of us because we are Muslim brothers. We believe in one Allah and the same last Holy Prophet. Our interests are same. Many of us fell for that.

Majority of our people did not take the bait, they said, our problems are not related  to religion. Our problems are related to political, social and economic rights.

The other neighbour, India, said, that is good. Religion is a personal matter of citizens. We believe in equality and humanity. We have shared values of democratic and secular ideals. Let us work together, and many people believed in that.

Because there was a competition between these two neighbours to control us,  to prove that their contention was the correct one. The Muslim neighbour, in name of Jihad, violated the agreement we had with them and attacked us.

These ‘Jihadi’ Muslim brothers did not hesitate to kill people of Jammu and Kashmir, loot and plunder their houses, shops and other belongings. They also did not shy away to kidnap our women, rape them and sell them in various places in Pakistan.

We asked for help from the other neighbour, India. We were told, we know you are in very serious trouble, and your people are being killed and women are raped. However, we can’t help you unless you agree to become part of us, and once that is done, we will protect you.

Our Ruler, in order to save his State, and to save us, agreed the conditions of the big and powerful neighbour. The fight between two big neighbours not only killed us, but also divided us on political and religious lines.

That fight still continues since 1947, and we remain divided. In this fight we get killed on both sides of the divide. Whether a bullet is fired to uphold democratic ideals or to promote Islamic brotherhood, we people of Jammu and Kashmir get killed. We are in pain and agony. Our suffering and ordeal must come to an end.

As if this was not bad enough, Muslim neighbour said, we two have been unable to agree as to what should be your future, so it is only appropriate that I manipulate the situation to make my big friend, and another neighbour of Jammu and Kashmir a party to the dispute. So Pakistan’s big brother and close friend, China, also jumped in to fray.

When we said to Pakistan that religion is not our problem, and don’t present this as a Muslim problem or a problem of Muslim Umma, we were told you are not a good Muslim. How could you be not part of the Muslim Umma.

The other neighbour, India, has also abandoned its old traditions of democracy and tolerance. It is no longer tolerant and understanding India of Gandhi and Nehru. We live in a new era, where minorities are intimidated, harassed and threatened.

The new government of Prime Minister not only unilaterally abrogated all the agreements we had with India, but has also practically occupied us. Even some Indian politicians and human rights activists say, Jammu and Kashmir has been transformed in to a big prison, where good and bad, old and young, men and women suffer equally.

Both New Delhi and Islamabad claim that they care for people of Jammu and Kashmir. However, their actions and ground reality tell us a different story, which is horrifying.

While our suffering continues unabated, Muslim Umma is still asleep, and Pakistan is told by champions of the Muslim Umma, not to make Jammu and Kashmir a Muslim dispute, something we told Pakistan many times.

At the beginning I said, Jammu and Kashmir is a political dispute. However, due to hard work of Pakistan and some collaborators, religious dimension is also added to the Jammu and Kashmir dispute.

Sadly, apart from religious and political aspects, the Jammu and Kashmir dispute has a big economic characteristic too. Tens of thousands of people are directly or indirectly linked with economic aspect of the dispute. This practically means, the dispute has become more complex and difficult to resolve.

 People of Jammu and Kashmir are the principal party to the dispute, they must have the final say in the future of this former Princely State.

The UN Resolutions only give us two options, either become part of India or become part of Pakistan. Right of self - determination was not promised. What I don’t understand is, why those who want to become part of Pakistan are patriots; and those who want to become part of India are traitors?

Out of two options given by the UN, and agreed by Pakistan and India, why one option is halal, and the other is haram?

As there is no military solution to this dispute, I urge the other two parties to make people of Jammu and Kashmir a party to the dialogue process. If people of Jammu and Kashmir are not involved in the negotiations then there will be no peace in Jammu and Kashmir and in South Asia; and our motherland can be a battleground for another military clash.

Thank you, Mr Chairman