Kashmir Committee to work with think-tanks to build strong narrative; says Shehryar Afridi

Islamabad: Chairman of Special Committee of the Parliament on Kashmir Mr Shehryar Khan Afridi Wednesday said that the parliamentary committee would work with the think-tanks, academia and policymakers to help build a strong narrative on the Kashmir dispute.

Shehryar Afridi expressed these views while talking to former Prime Minister of Azad Jammu & Kashmir Barrister Sultan Mehmood who called on him here.

Shehryar Afridi said the Kashmir Committee is committed to serve the cause of Kashmir and he was working extensively to raise the Kashmir issue at all levels. He said the Kashmiri and Pakistani Diaspora should play an active role in raising the Kashmir issue at the international forums and the committee would reach out to them.

He said Kashmir is an unfinished agenda of partition of the subcontinent which was still unresolved since 1948. He said that both Pakistan and India have fought wars on Kashmir and it is a nuclear flash point in the region.

“Pakistan and India – both are nuclear-capable countries. Any misadventure can trigger a war. And a war between two nuclear-capable countries cannot be contained, as war, once initiated, takes dimensions on its own,” he said.

Afridi said the domicile law and granting of domiciles in Kashmir to Indians is part of the Hindu Fascist plan to change the demography of Kashmir which is a violation of the UN resolutions. He said India can no longer hoodwink the world community of its atrocities and grave human rights violations in IOJK and Pakistan will always expose the nefarious Indian designs in Kashmir.

Barrister Sultan Mehmood, also chief of Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) Azad Jammu & Kashmir (AJK), congratulated Shehryar Afridi on assuming the charge of Chairman Kashmir Committee. He said Kashmiri Diaspora is playing an important role in raising Kashmir issue internationally.

He said that Kashmir Committee should also reach out to the overseas Pakistanis in the western countries and activate them to raise the Kashmir cause at all forums. He said PTI AJK chapter would always be ready to become a voice of the Kashmir Committee.