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'APHC
serves the policy reflex of Pakistan'
Press
Briefing
Editor's
note:
Excerpts from the
press briefing of Mr. Sayed Nazir Gilani, Chairman, International
Kashmir Alliance, held in London, on September 26, 2003
On
15 April 03 APHC went into a seven hour long indoor session and
reached out to the establishment in Islamabad, requesting the use
and support of Pakistan Television (PTV), Radio Pakistan, Kashmir
Media Service and print media against IKA leadership, domiciled
outside the borders of Kashmir.
IKA
Declaration which puts ‘people first’ and stands for an
‘accountable, transparent, and just politics’ and the exercise
of our ‘Right of Association’ and ‘Right of Assembly’ were
labelled as anti- movement activity, by APHC. PTV, Radio Pakistan,
Kashmir Media Service, print media and Pakistan Government machinery
was let loose to conduct a vicious propaganda against IKA
leadership. The establishment in Islamabad also exploited some
websites to wage a vicious propaganda against us.
Prof.
Gani Bhat the then Chairman of APHC while soliciting a non- Kashmiri
support against a Kashmiri school of politics forgot the saying –
“Be nice to people on your way up, because you meet them on your
way down”. Now on his way down, ironically the same Bhat has
complained on 9th September in his interview in Daily Jang (pages 1
and 3) to the Government of Pakistan, for using PTV, Radio Pakistan,
KMS and print media against him and his faction of APHC.
IKA
responded to APHC on 17th April 03, 24 April 03 and reminded the
Prime Minister of Pakistan of his Government’s duty to fairness
and to keep out of a valid debate between IKA and APHC. We reminded
him that the use of PTV, Radio Pakistan, Kashmir Media Service and
Pakistani print media in a campaign of character assassination of
the IKA leadership constituted a serious breach of the Pakistan’s
assumed role in its administered parts of Kashmir.....
...
As against this APHC, guilty of an irresponsible political culture
and used to a privatised and a commercialised politics, has failed
to honour its own constitution, to find a ‘peaceful settlement’
of the dispute. It has lead a generation in Kashmir to a slaughter
house and is responsible for disabling the civil society in Kashmir.
And now they stand split – one calls the other, a dirty devil and
anti movement.
The
history of APHC pre and post split, shows that the leadership has an
unreliable understanding of Kashmir case ..... The people of Jammu
and Kashmir are caught in a total failure of the intended balance
between self-determination of all the peoples and minority rights of
some of the people. There is no denying of the majoritarian rule
within the Nation-State. However while in principle a necessary and
desirable rule, it will have to ensure that it does not prevent the
coexistence of other social values. Its failure to represent the
aspirations of the Kashmiri Pandits and other minorities is
regrettable and condemnable.
APHC
leadership is grouped in the small town of Srinagar and is non-
representative of the people in aggregate. It has betrayed the
popular sentiment, supporting the Rights Movement. It has breached
its own constitution by opposing the cease-fire announced by Hizb
and by the Prime Minister of India, thus depriving the people
recognition as a party. APHC even pooh-poohed a cease-fire announced
by its own Chairman Prof. Gani Bhat. It does not respect the
aspirations of the people living under the other two administrations
of Muzaffarabad and Gilgit. The fact that APHC has earned the blame
that it serves the policy reflex of the establishment in Islamabad,
is not in the interests of a pluralistic civil society in
Kashmir.
APHC
pre and post split, has remained an undemocratic and an
unconstitutional body. It has sent over 70,000 souls to death and
continues to subscribe to a politics of violence, causing a heavy
loss of life on a daily basis. It has precipitated, for its private
and commercial reasons, multiple violence, of security forces,
militants, renegades and unidentified gunmen. IKA holds it
accountable and liable for a loss of life, which could have been
averted, if APHC had followed its constitutional
discipline.....
....Pakistan
is a bad advocate of the people of Kashmir. It practices double
standards and it too has violated international law by taking steps
in Azad Kashmir and in Gilgit, repugnant to the jurisprudence of UN
Security Council Resolutions ( UNCIP). The constitutional restraints
in Azad Kashmir and the Karachi Agreement of April 1949 on Northern
Areas are a serious violation of its assumed role under UNCIP.
Pakistani establishment restrains free opinions on
self-determination and promotes pre-determination in the two
administrations under its control.
....IKA
welcomes the initiatives of the Vajpayee Government and of the
Opposition, in particular Congress party taken in the recent past in
relation to Rights Movement and Peace in Kashmir.
.....IKA
regrets that the Government of Kashmir at Muzaffarabad has lost its
vires, by failing to ensure its Constitutional duties to the people
living under the administrations of Srinagar and Gilgit.
Muzaffarabad Government has failed to ensure that the writ of its
superior courts prevails in relation to the coercive tactics of the
establishment in Islamabad. More so, it has failed in relation to
curbs placed on the fundamental rights under Act 1974 and the Azad
Jammu & Kashmir Council rules. |
