The Pakistan Repatriation Council (PRC) recently organized a symposium in Jeddah titled “Kashmir and the Obligation of the Muslim World” to mark Kashmir Solidarity Day. Several leaders of the Pakistani community in Jeddah as well as Saudi dignitaries attended the event, in which Dr. Abdullah Omar Naseef, former secretary general of the Muslim World League (MWL) and former vice president of the Shoura Council, was the chief guest and eminent journalist Khaled Almaeena was the guest of honor. After reciting a few verses from the Holy Qur'an, a number of Pakistani community leaders addressed the symposium. They included Shahid Naeem, Aziz Ahmed, Tayyab Moosani, Syed Ghazanfar Hassan, Syed Nasseeruddin, Syed Fazal Faizi, Shamsuddin Altaf, Mohammed Amanatullah, and Mohammed Luqman. The speakers expressed their solidarity with the people of Kashmir who demand the right of self-determination to decide the future status of their homeland. They noted that the Kashmiri people have been waging their struggle for this ever since the partition of the Indian subcontinent. The speakers demanded that the United Nations implement the Security Council resolution that gave the Kashmiris their right to self-determination through a UN-supervised plebiscite. They also urged the Pakistan government to work for ending the ordeal and suffering of more than a quarter of a million Pakistanis who have been stranded in Bangladesh since 1971. In his speech, Hamid Islam Khan, deputy convener of the PRC, elaborated the council's mission for the cause of Kashmir and the stranded Pakistanis. Delivering the keynote speech, Dr. Naseef, who is also President of the World Muslim Congress (WMC), said that the UN resolutions could be a guideline for dialogue between India and Pakistan to solve disputes between the two countries including Kashmir. “Peaceful negotiations would not only ensure their rights but are also essential for peace in the subcontinent.” Referring to the issue of Pakistanis stranded in Bangladesh, Dr. Naseef drew attention to the initiatives taken by Nawaz Sharif in 1988 while he was the chief minister of Punjab and in 1992 and 1997 as prime minister of Pakistan to solve the issue of their repatriation and rehabilitation. “We hope that this issue is given due priority again in his agenda,” he said. In his speech, Almaeena said that it is wishful thinking that the UN will initiate a plebiscite after 65 years though it did carry out one very quickly in East Timor and Sudan but failed to take any steps for the rights of the people of Palestine or Kashmir. “The solution to the Kashmir issue will not come via any type of war or threat but only by negotiations. I also support the idea that Kashmiris should be at the negotiation table and realize that they may opt for independence rather than joining Pakistan or India. It is important that both India and Pakistan invest in the welfare of people and in education and healthcare and make efforts to eliminate poverty, corruption and terrorism rather than spending valuable resources on building arsenals of weapons,” he said. Almaeena also praised the PRC for highlighting the plight of a quarter of a million patriotic Pakistanis who have been living in miserable conditions in squalid and crowded camps in Bangladesh since 1971. Describing Dr. Naseef as a role model for him, Almaeena praised his initiative in attempting to solve the issue of the stranded Pakistanis. “I think Pakistan has to come forward to show it cares for its citizens and in this regard the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) or MWL could extend assistance and help resolve the problem,” he said. As one of the speakers at the symposium, I drew attention to the fact that under the two-nations theory, which was the basis for the division of the subcontinent, Kashmir should have been an integral part of Pakistan, since the majority of its population is Muslim. Pakistan and India fought three wars over this issue, but all of these wars failed to settle the dispute. Since India accepted the UN Security Council resolution passed in 1948, it should organize a plebiscite in Kashmir. Neither the wars nor UN intervention have helped to solve this issue. The wise political leaders of Pakistan and India should realize that the insoluble Kashmir issue will continue to remain the major hurdle in normalizing bilateral relations between the two neighboring countries, and might lead to new wars. I also emphasized that the governments and people of the two countries as well as the people of Kashmir should sit at a negotiating table to find a lasting solution to one of the oldest political issues in the contemporary history of the world. At a time when we voice our keenness about resolving the Kashmir issue so as to end the ordeal of the Kashmiri people, we should not forget the plight and miseries of the Pakistanis who have been stranded in Bangladesh for over four decades because of their support for the Pakistan army in its bid to maintain the unity of Pakistan. The government of Pakistan and Dr. Naseef should work together to reactivate the Rabita Endowment, which was established with the objective of repatriating and rehabilitating the stranded Pakistanis. The symposium came to a close with the speech of PRC Convener Syed Ehsanul Haque who proposed a vote of thanks to the dignitaries and all others for participating in the symposium. He urged the OIC to exert concerted efforts to solve the issue of Kashmir. He also called on the Nawaz Sharif government to take urgent measures to solve the issues of Kashmir and the stranded Pakistanis. PRC Secretary General Abdul Qayyum Wasiq conducted the symposium. Paying tribute to Kashmir and the Kashmiris, Syed Mohsin Alavi, Wasiq, and Zamurrad Khan Saifi presented their poems.
— Dr. Ali Al-Ghamdi is a former Saudi diplomat who specializes in Southeast Asian affairs. He can be reached at [email protected]
