HR minister Mazari proposes solutions to Kashmir issue

Minister for Human Rights Dr Shireen Mazari has laid out a set of proposals aimed at taking implementable steps to resolve the Kashmir issue.

She was speaking at a seminar on Youm-i-Tasees Day of Kashmir held at the Republic University College in Islamabad.

Dr Mazari said Pakistan should propose a solution to the Kashmir problem resembling the Irish peace accord.

She made it clear that she was not referring to any specific clause of the said accord but the broad concept on the basis of which the accord was signed and implemented.

Dr Mazari also referred to the East Timor independence based on the concept of self determination and said Pakistan should press the Kashmir case on these lines.

She also said Pakistan should ask the United Nations to document all the Kashmiris who qualified to vote in the referendum based on the UN resolutions whenever it took place.

She said such documentation needed to be done in India-held Kashmir and also of the Kashmiri diaspora across the world.

The minister said the citizens of Azad Jammu Kashmir had already been documented because they were participating in regular elections.

Ms Mazari condemned the brutal repression of innocent Kashmiris by India in India-held Kashmir.

She added that it was time for Pakistan to move beyond clichés and take concrete steps that put India on the defensive.