Pakistan observed “Black Day” on Wednesday as a sign of protest against Indian atrocities in Indian held Jammu and Kashmir and in order to show solidarity with the Kashmiri people in their demand for their right to self determination. Pakistan has also raised the issue of Kashmir at the international stage with Pakistan’s permanent representative to the United Nations, Maleeha Lodhi, reminding UN officials of their duty to ensure that the rights of Kashmiris are protected. Lodhi in her statement said, “Dubbing the Kashmiris, agitating for their right to self-determination, as terrorists was a travesty of truth and was further inflaming passions.” This is perhaps the most important dimension of the Kashmir issue as the Indian government has repeatedly tried to delegitimise the freedom movement in Kashmir by declaring it to be a fringe movement of terrorists backed by Pakistan. The fact that the Indian government has conveniently ignored the wide support for the freedom movement is indication that India is not even interested in genuinely addressing the grievances of the Kashmiri people. Even in the recent uprising in Kashmir following the killing of militant commander Burhan Wani, 44 civilians have been killed while over 3,000 have been injured. Surely, such big numbers of victims cannot be the result of Pakistan backed militants and devoid of indigenous grievances towards the Indian government.
In light of all this it is good that Pakistan is extending diplomatic and moral support to the Kashmir cause. The international community needs to be taken out of its state of selective amnesia, and its attention must be turned towards the Kashmir issue. As long as Pakistan steers clear of supporting militant groups in Kashmir, and does not allow such groups to even carry out rallies and demonstrations in Pakistani soil, the cause of the people of the Kashmir would greatly benefit from Pakistani support.
The Kashmir issue should be also be used by Pakistan as an opportunity for introspection and to determine the grievances of the units within Pakistan towards the state. Balochistan is one such region where separatist fires endanger the unity of Pakistan. While it would be unreasonable to conflate the Kashmir issue with the Balochistan issue as Kashmir is a disputed territory while Balochistan is not, the dialectic of centre-province tension is disturbingly similar. The paucity of information coming out of Balochistan and the lack of attention being paid to the region has further exacerbated the issue of marginalisation in the province. To make matters worse, and eerily similar to the situation of Kashmir in India, hyper nationalists both in the news media and in the social media in Pakistan brush off the grievances of the local people as nothing more than a foreign backed “agenda.” While it would be naïve to believe that Pakistan’s neighbouring country would not take advantage of separatist tendencies in Balochistan, such an approach overlooks the underlying structural deficiencies and the long history of deprivation that engenders such feelings. Hence, unless Pakistan comes to face these realities and addresses the concerns of the Baloch people, any military operation would be piecemeal and would not result in long-term stability. http://dailytimes.com.pk/editorial/22-Jul-16/kashmir-and-pakistan
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