Recently Mr Nadeem Aslam has posted an article over the Kashnet. This article is by Mr Asif Ezdi, a former member of the Pakistan foreign Office.The subject is : Whether or not the Supreme Court of Pakistan has jurisdiction over the affairs of Azad Kashmir?
This article by Mr Ezdi is very alarming. Though I trust that this article should be Mr Ezdi's personal disillusionment and let us hope that this view is not a reflection of Pakistan's planning. But as Mr Ezdi has been a member of the foreign office, his thoughts give us a flavour how Pakistan thinks about the future of the State of Jammu and Kashmir.
I have always been a vocal ctitic of Pakistan's role on the issue of the state of Jammu and Kashmir. In fact Pakistan came into being prematurely by default and right from the moment one, could not muster any courage to form a policy which could reflect interests of its masses. The geographical division of the subcontinent which was endorsed by the founders of Pakistan and forced over the fates of hundreds of Muslims of the subcontinent has transformed the region into a flashpoint.
Pakistan left over bulk of the Muslim population of the subcontinent to Baharat (I call Hindustan as Baharat and do not accept that she is India, all people of the subcontinent are Indians and we do not accept Baharat's claim that she is onlly India), could not claim Hyderabad and joonagadh due to diplomatic incompetence and rather than accepting her limitations and honouring the bilateral accords with Baharat,chose a path of contention with her new mighty neighbour. To divert public anger due to the failures on many other fronts, Pakistan planned to take over Kashmir and forgot that both Pakistan and Kashmir had signed a mutual treaty called "Stand Still Agreement" as two soverign nations.
People of the State of Jammu and Kashmir had long been waged a movemnt against their ruler and this struggle had forced the Maharajah to retreat and accept demands made by the public and as the poeople of the State of Jammu and Kashmir were just about to culminate their successful struggle, Pakistan entered her armed malatiamen into Kashmir and then her armed forces too to capture the State. Thus Maharajah leaned towards Baharat and requested military support from her to defend the State from foreign forces. Baharat cleverly declined any support and told Maharajah that without formal accession Baharat was not in a position to extend any support, so Maharajah decided to announce accession to Baharat resulting in the entry of Baharti forces into the State to fight against invading malatiamen and armed forces from Pakistan. This situation created by Pakistan against her own "Stand Still Agreement", ended the soverignity of the State of Jammu and Kashmir on 26th October 1947.
Not only Pakistan failed to honour its international treaty obligations but also badly botched against the diplomatic manoeuvering from Baharat. First Pakistan accepted the ceasefire line as a limit of her own advancement in 1948 in the UNO and then in Shimla in 1974 accepted this ceasefire line as "Line of Control". Pakistan agreed that in future all disputes with Baharat will be settled mutually and no foreign mediation would be required. This stance by Pakistan, in fact, accepted Baharti rule over bulk of the territory of the State of Jammu and Kashmir and started finding peace with her mighty neighbour in return for the control of Azad Kashmir, Gilgit and Baltistan.
In fact Pakistan knew from the day one that her claim over the State of Jammu and Kashmir cannot hold any ground longrun and thus decided to divide the State of Jammu and Kashmir in agreement with Baharat. Baharat who has now realised that she cannot capture whole of the State of jammu and Kashmir seems willing to digest her own share of the cake now.
But, let me declare it without any doubt, Kashmiries will never accept accept division of the State of Jammu and Kashmir. People of Kashmir now ask Pakistan to accept that she cannot fight for Kashmiries and demand to let Kashmir alone. Pakistan has always failed to protect interests of Kashmiries and thus Kashmiries rightly demand from Pakistan to pull out her armed forces from the State of jammu and Kashmir (so called Azad Kashmir, Gilgit and Baltistan), recognise the Azad Government of the State of Jammu and Kashmir as legitimate soverign democratic authority to deal with the liberation of the whole State of Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan is not in a position and will never be in a position to challenge Baharat over the issue of Kashmir and thus it would be wiser to let Kashmiries sort out their own future.
I would remind mr Asif Ezdi, and his all those like minded coleagues of Pakistan Foreign Office, that with each passing moment Pakistan is growing so fragile that she is even finding it difficult to control those expressly mentioned territories in Article 1 of Pakistani Constitution which constitute Pakistan (and please do not forget Pakistan has already lost another territory which used to constitute Pakistan and is now known as Bangladesh), that Pakistan should forget to annex further territories.
Kashmir with some variations to her boundries has been an independent country for thousands of years and Kashmiries will never accept any such solution which in any way limits the soverignity and autonomy of the State of Jammu and Kashmir.
If Pakistan is sincere with Kashmiries,( and I should expect Pakistan to be sincere now after the statement of the Attorney General of Pakistan in the Supreme Court that "AJK is a sovereign state and it has its own president, prime minister, legislative assembly and speaker. Therefore the apex court cannot interfere in its affairs.") she should immediately announce that the future of Kashmir will be dicided by Kashmiries right of self determination, a right where Kashmiries will be given three options to choose from, accession to Pakistan, accession to Baharat or total independence. Outcome of such an independent, impartial, fair, free and transparent right of self determination can only settle the status of Kashmir. It is still not too late.
But remember if any move is taken to transform Azad Kashmir, Gilgit and Baltistan into Pakistani provinces, Kashmiri will never accept it and will wage a war against Pakistan. Both Baharat and Pakistan have to vacate Kashmir, this is only way forward.
Written By,
Prof.Sajjad Raja
CC. JK NAP UK
