When will Islamabad walk its Kashmir talk?

Islamabad undisputedly scores excellent marks when it comes to rhetoric concerning the Kashmir issue, but unfortunately its record of following up words with meaningful action remains abysmal. And for such a sorry state of affairs to exist despite the advantage UN resolu­tions in its favour makes the situation all the more worrisome. Thus, when it’s clear that Islamabad has failed to mobilize international support for the Kashmir cause even after seven decades, would it still be unkind to term Pakistan’s Kashmir diplomacy as something “full of sound and fury, (but) signifying nothing”?

In 2016, when massive protests broke out in Kashmir after Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Wani was killed in an encounter with security forces, Islamabad launched a scathing attack on New Delhi by stating “The extra-judicial killing of Kashmiri leader Burhan Wani and scores of other innocent Kashmiris is deplorable and condemnable.” Nawaz Sharif, (the then Prime Minister of Pakistan) even took this matter to the UN and in his UNGA speech men­tioned, “These Indian brutalities are well documented. I would like to in­form the General Assembly that Pak­istan will share with the Secretary General a dossier containing detailed information and evidence of the gross and systematic violations of human rights committed by Indian forces in occupied Jammu and Kashmir.”

While Sharif personally handed over the dossier on Indian atrocities in Kashmir to the then UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon, Pakistan’s am­bassador to the US, Jalil Abbas Jilani also handed over copies of the same to US special representative Richard Ol­son. Unfortunately, even though more than two years have elapsed since these dossiers were handed over, nei­ther the UN nor the US has mentioned even a single word criticising New Delhi for what Islamabad claims is “Indian atrocities in Kashmir.” Nor has Islamabad’s initiative of sending legislators across the globe in 2016 to gain support for its stand on the Kash­mir issue borne any fruit. And thus, despite all the hue and cry that Islam­abad makes, the Kashmir issue con­tinues to languish in the backburner!

Last Saturday two civilian pro­testers were killed in Shopian when soldiers fired at mob pelting stones at an army convoy. As always, Is­lamabad immediately hit out at New Delhi for what it called “countering peaceful, unarmed protesters with le­thal weapons and direct bullets” and referred to this incident as “another manifestation of the state-terrorism being perpetrated by India against Kashmiris on a daily basis.” While Pakistan’s concern regarding the Shopian incident is very heartening, the thought that (like always) nothing substantial will eventually come out of it is equally depressing. And it is here that one wonders why Islamabad is so hesitant in going beyond mere rhetoric on the Kashmir issue?

Islamabad is more than con­vinced that the people in Indian ad­ministered Kashmir (IaK) are hapless victims of “state sponsored terror­ism” perpetuated by New Delhi and claims to have conclusive proof of this in the form of well documented dossiers. So why doesn’t it move a mo­tion in the UN against Indian atroci­ties in the UN? When the UN Security Council (UNSC) can send the monitor­ing team 1267 Sanctions Committee to Pakistan to investigate allegations made by Washington and New Delhi concerning inadequate implementa­tion of sanctions against JuD head Hafiz Saeed and other entities linked to him, why can’t Islamabad along­with its “all weather friend” China do likewise for India’s role in Kashmir?

Dukhtaran-e-Millat chairperson Ms Asiya Andrabi is in complete agreement with Islamabad’s charge that the Shopian incident is part of Delhi’s continuing attempts to break the will of Kashmiris by following its well planned state sponsored terror­ism strategy in the state. While Islam­abad may have ‘signed off’ after its customary ritual of flaying New Delhi for this incident, Ms Andrabi hasn’t and has demanded that Government of Pakistan and that of Azad Kashmir should take up the issue of Kashmiris being killed with the International Court of Justice (IJC). And even though her appeal makes sense but going by past experience the chances of Islamabad doing so are remote.

Seven months ago Democratic Freedom Party (DFP) chairman Shabir Ahmed Shah had made a similar appeal saying, “Just as India took the case of Kulbhushan Jadhav to ICJ, Pakistan should follow suit and garner international opinion over the Kashmir Issue.” At that time Pakistan’s Foreign Office did say that “the Attorney General is working on the matter (of taking the Kashmir issue to ICJ) and may update in due course.” However, by prefixing this statement with the pessimistic dec­laration that the Kashmir issue “is a complex legal problem” and add­ing the evasive word “may’ in the operative part of the text is a clear indication that as far as the Kashmir issue is concerned, Islamabad isn’t inclined at all to upset the status quo. This may sound odd, but it’s true!

Pakistan’s Kashmir policy is riddled with contradictions. While it keeps asking the international com­munity to intervene in the Kashmir issue, it itself refuses to do anything more than making noises. Islamabad says that the Kashmir issue can easily be resolved once India sheds its obdu­rate stance. However, when someone suggests that this issue should be tak­en to ICJ, the Kashmir issue suddenly becomes “a complex legal problem” for Islamabad! And the tragedy is that neither our leaders, nor our intelli­gentsia or civil society has ever asked Islamabad why it is so shy of taking up the Kashmir issue to the ICJ or UN? Is it the fear of skeletons tumbling out of its cupboard that is preventing Islam­abad from going ahead?

Tailpiece: Pakistan supports the ‘K’ cause for which we are grateful but that doesn’t mean that it can get away with seventy years of talk with­out taking a single step of walk on the Kashmir issue. Yet, why only blame Islamabad when the report card of our own leaders regarding progress made on the ‘self determination’ front is far from satisfactory. For nearly two and a half decades they have been consoling us by saying that the ‘blood of martyrs will not go waste’ and giv­ing us hopes that ‘the Kashmir strug­gle will be taken to its logical end’ without not telling us how. A word of caution –patience and hope cannot in­definitely subsist on promises!

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