ISLAMABAD – Minister for Foreign Affairs Shah Mahmood Qureshi Thursday saidthe government would launch a comprehensive campaign from January 25encompassing rallies, seminars and exhibitions here and abroad to highlightthe Kashmir dispute globally.
The government would run a media campaign in both print and electronicmedia to highlight the deteriorating human rights situation in the IndianOccupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOJK), he said while addressing a pressconference here.
Minister for Communications Murad Saeed and Special Assistant to the PM onInformation and Broadcasting Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan flanked the foreignminister as he talked to the media after his return from Davos where PrimeMinister Imran Khan also raised the Kashmir issue with US President Trumpand reiterated his call for intervention.
Qureshi said the federal ministers had been assigned different tasks tomake the campaign successful by mobilizing the masses on the issue, whichwas already supported by the whole nation unitedly.
On January 27, the Pakistan National Council of Arts would host a culturalshow focusing Kashmir, which would follow a photo exhibition at thecountrywide art galleries depicting the Kashmir cause, freedom struggle,the miseries of the people including the pellet gun victims and the ordealof the homeless Kashmiri people.
The foreign minister said the comprehensive campaign would also help foilthe Indian attempt to dub Pakistan’s stance as exaggerated by showing theon the ground situation to the global community.
On January 30, Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Kashmir FakharImam would chair a seminar on Kashmir, who would also address a newsconference the very next day along with the committee members.
The campaign also consists of an event to be held on February 3 at theConvention Center to be attended by youth activists and students followedby the distribution of ration among the Kashmiri refugees the same day.
On February 4, President Dr Arif Alvi would host an event at theAiwan-e-Sadr on Kashmir to be attended by the diplomatic corps, which wouldalso feature the running of documentaries on Kashmir.
A series of activities had been planned on February 5, also annuallyobserved as Kashmir Solidarity Day, including human chain in Azad Jammu andKashmir (AJK) and rallies at all the provincial capitals and the chiefministers had been asked to personally lead their respective rallies.
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The same day, the prime minister would address the members of the KashmirLegislative Assembly in Muzaffarabad and address a public gathering inMirpur.
The government had designed the publicity material and the slogans toreinforce the voice of the Kashmiri people to the global community, which,he viewed, could not keep mum for long.
Qureshi said Pakistan’s missions would also host similar events to beattended by the expatriates as well as the local figures. Moreover, themissions would also approach the local media to highlight the human rightssituation in Kashmir through their media in their own languages.
He said the AJK president and prime minister had been asked to writeletters to different heads of state urging them to play their role to helpend the miseries of Kashmiri people. For activating the parliamentarydiplomacy, the speaker of the AJK Legislative Assembly would contact hiscounterparts abroad for the purpose.
He desired that the Kashmir-related events should also be held at thedistrict level.While giving the historical perspectives of Pakistan’s efforts post August5, 2019, the foreign minister said the issue was discussed at the UnitedNations Security Council (UNSC) after 50 years.
Mentioning his letters to and personal interactions with the UN SecretaryGeneral and the UNSC President to highlight the deteriorating situation,the foreign minister said the UNMOGIP (United Nations Military ObserverGroup in India and Pakistan) had also admitted Pakistan’s cooperation inKashmir, and not by India.
Even in Davos, he said, the prime minister apprised the US president aboutthe complex situation in the IOJK that could have serious implications ifthe US or the UN did not make timely intervention.
To a question, he said at the time when Pakistan had taken the Kashmirissue at its peak in the global community, the attention of local media wasdiverted to a sit-in held in Islamabad that had blurred the country’snarrative domestically.
