ISLAMABAD: Legislators in a Senate body on Thursday expressed serious reservations over the passage of 23 different UN resolutions, which accepted the right of self determination for Kashmiri but have not been honoured.
In all the resolutions, it was urged that people in occupied Jammu and Kashmir would be given the right to decide about their own future. These resolutions were unanimously adopted but there was no mechanism for their proper implementation.
Whenever a country could not follow the instruction of the UN resolutions, sanctions were imposed against the concerned countries but in case of Indian occupied Kashmir the situation was totally different. These views were expressed by Senate Standing committee on Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit Baltistan, which met on Thursday at the Parliament House, while Professor Sajid Mir was in the chair.
The committee chairman told the committee that before imposing sanction on India, the resolution was vetoed at the UN level and could not implemented.
However, the committee expressed satisfaction that the Kashmir issue was properly highlighted at international fora and now the world community was also putting pressure on India regarding resolution of the dispute.
Leader of the House in Senate Raja Zafarul Haq appreciated the recently held moot on Kashmir in UK by Lord Nazir, who extended his support to the Kashmir cause.
PPP Senator Rehman Malik repeated his questions as to what steps need to be taken for implementation of different resolutions in the UN in giving power of self determination to the people of occupied Kashmir. He claimed that the current as well as all previous governments totally failed to implement UN passed resolutions in favour of the Kashmiri people.
He suggested the government and ministry of foreign affairs to suggest some mechanism for implementing the UN resolutions.
Director General South Asia Ministry of Foreign Affairs Faisal while briefing the committee said that the foreign ministry had given the task to highlight the issue of Jammu-Kashmir on international forums which it was doing efficiently.
He told the committee that at the recent OIC conference held in Turkey, the issue of Jammu-Kashmir was strongly highlighted and six paragraphs of a unanimous stance were issued demanding the restoration of human-rights in Kashmir and resolving the dispute of Kashmir according to the will of the people of Kashmir.
Leader of the House in the Senate, Raja Zafar-ul-Haq, while giving his remarks said that the Kashmir issue was not just highlighted by the Pakistani government but it was also highlighted internationally such as the government of the United Kingdom.
Earlier, Secretary for Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan briefed the committee about the budgetary allocation and utilization for Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan in detail.
While informing the committee about the various upcoming developmental projects, he said that AJK/GB along with the federal government were planning and initializing to work on various developmental projects including Rathoa-Haryam Bridge, Establishment of medical college Mirpur and Muzzafarabad and various power projects in Gilgit-Baltistan.
Secretary for the Planning Ministry told the committee that there were a number of projects in which the element of foreign aid was involved. He further informed that the budgetary allocation for developmental projects was limited, emphasizing on increasing the budgetary allocation for AJK.
Senator Rehman Malik, while commenting showed his reservations on the allocation and utilization of budget for AJK. He said that AJK should be given their fair due share as far as the allocation of budget is concerned.
Secretary Planning Division told the committee that 83 per cent of the funds were used in salaries of employees and other 17 per cent were used in developmental projects.
They said due to lack of funds different projects delayed. If we demand 2000 million funds we get 50 million. In response Raja Zafarul-Haq said due to financial constraints the government wanted to reduce its expenditure.
Raja Muhammad Zafarul Haq, Senator Baz Muhammad, Haji Momin Khan Afridi, Najma Hameed, Ahmed Hassan, and Senator Abdul Rehman Malik, attended the meeing. Abid Saeed Secretary Ministry of Gilglt Blatistan and Additional Secretary Tariq Jamil, and other senior officers also attended the meeting. http://dailytimes.com.pk/islamabad/29-Apr-16/23-resolutions-on-indian-held-kashmir-not-implemented
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