The house unanimously passed a comprehensive resolution moved by the chairman of its special committee on Kashmire,
Maulana Fazlur RehmanDeobandi holy man, known as
Mullah Dieselduring the war against the Soviets, his sympathies for the Taliban have never been tempered by honesty ...
, reiterating Pakistain's traditional stand for a solution of the Kashmire dispute through a UN-mandated plebiscite, ahead of a day of solidarity with the Kashmiri people's struggle to be marked in Pakistain and Azad Kashmire on Wednesday as a national holiday.
But Mahmood Khan Achakzai, leader of the government-allied Pakhtunkhwa Milli Awami Party, caused some apparent unease on the treasury benches by sounding a discordant note, saying the internationally recognised right to self-determination should not mean only a choice between India and Pakistain but also a third course like an independent Kashmire.
He said neither those describing Kashmire as the "jugular vein" of Pakistain -- a statement attributed to Pakistain's founder Quaid-e-Azam Mohammad Ali Jinnah -- nor those calling the state an 'atoot ang', or integral part, of India were Kashmiris, and pleaded that "ask their 'rooh' (soul)" whether they wanted to join Pakistain or India or have an independent state of their own.
But Maulana Fazlur Rehman, speaking after the resolution was passed, insisted that the plan for the partition of then British-ruled subcontinent at independence in 1947 and resolutions passed later by the UN Security Council following the first of the two India-Pakistain wars over Kashmire gave the people of the Himalayan state the only option of choosing to accede to either of the two countries.
The resolution, passed after only some subdued criticism of India, said the house "impresses upon India that since Kashmiris are the original and real party to the Jammu and Kashmire dispute, they should, therefore, be associated in the dialogue process".
It reiterated Pakistain's "full political, moral and diplomatic support to the Kashmiri people's just stand" and condemned what it called "large-scale violations of human rights
...which are usually entirely different from personal
liberty...
" in India-held Kashmire.
It demanded that the Indian government withdraw its military forces from cities in the territory, allow a neutral inquiry into unmarked graves found in the area, release all political prisoners, repeal all the laws giving special powers to armed forces stationed there and hold "meaningful, result-oriented and time-bound" talks with Pakistain.