(Wajid Shamsul Hasan is Pakistan’s High Commissioner to UK. He is a veteran journalist and was an advisor to assassinated Pakistani leader Benazir Bhutto. He knew and worked with Benazir Bhutto for over 30 years and was also a trusted advisor to her father, Zulfikar Ali Bhutto. )
Pakistan: As Pakistan's High Commissioner in a country where-if not majority-substantively large number of Pakistani origin Diaspora-nearly a million strong-hail from Azad Kashmir-I can understand their concerns and over blown reactions on any misconstrued utterance received by them through foreign media regarding the core issue that has bedevilled peace and co-operation between India and Pakistan.
While not undermining their capacity to over react what pains me as a Pakistani who has remained a devout champion of the right of self-determination for the Kashmiri people in a journalistic career spread over a period of 45 years to see caution and wisdom being thrown to winds just for the asking. What grieves me more is the knee-jerk reaction of some of the senior Kashmiri leaders who jump to their guns without even trying to ascertain the veracity of an alleged and attributed utterance.
I can write volumes on PPP, its past, present government and leadership's commitment to the Kashmiri cause. I still remember the briefing that I had received from the then Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto (Shaheed) when she sent me to represent Pakistan at the Court of St James. On top of her agenda assigned to me was to mobilise support for the Kashmiri struggle for freedom from foreign yoke. I followed her advise to the best of my ability with religious devotion and set myself on the task of achieving what my friend George Galloway-a leading Labourite than-had described as "snatching victory out of the jaws of defeat".
Pakistan High Commission as never before conducted such a hectic lobbying in 1994-96 with the unstinted support of the Kashmiri/Pakistani community and Labour members of Parliament-- under the direct instructions from Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto who was herself hourly monitoring the activities on phone at the Camp office set up in Brighton. That enormous amount of lobbying culminated in what is known as 1995 Brighton Resolution adopted by the Labour Party annual Conference, moved by Shadow Foreign Secretary Robin Cook and drafted by Sir Gerald Kaufman-upholding categorically the UN sanctioned right of self-determination for the people of Kashmir. The Labour Party had also acknowledged unequivocally that the solution of the Kashmir problem was its moral obligation since it was the legacy of the partition of the Indian sub-continent in 1947 under a Labour government. This landmark development-first ever since the UN passed the plebiscite resolution-was bannered as "Pakistan's diplomatic victory" by even the India media.
I regret to say that those who make most of an out of context quote are sections of the western media and of course few of those pen pushers who dance on the tunes played by invisible hands. And the propaganda is so well-orchestrated that innocent Kashmiris fall for it although for a short while only. Surrendering to misperceptions-- even though for a little while- amounts to colossal disservice to the unimpeachable commitment of PPP, Bhuttos and now President Asif Ali Zardari to the Kashmiri cause.
It is high time that the Kashmiris at large do not lend their ears to defeatist elements and puppets on the chains of their enemies who style themselves as their leaders. Such elements are past masters at biting the hands that had been feeding them for a long time. They must also remember that in this age of electronic media explosion with competition having become cut-throat-any bad or distorted news is good news-especially when its victim is Asif Ali Zardari. Any quote that can be twisted and turned to their own story requirement is a great ball game for them.
While denying firmly the remarks misquoted in an interview of President Zardari in the WSJ I can say on authority that Pakistan has not deviated from its traditional stand of unqualified support to the people of the state of Jammu and Kashmir struggling for the right of self-determination sanctioned to them by the United Nations. It extends moral and political support to their just struggle and acknowledges in grief tremendous sacrifices by them to the extent that over the years over 100,000 people have lost their lives as proved by frequent discovery of mass graves.
I reiterate in further clarifying a report in a section of the media attributed to Pakistan's President Asif Ali Zardari that the President at no point in his interview undermined the indigenous struggle by the Kashmiri people for the right of self-determination. He had reasserted that Pakistan has and will continue to support wholeheartedly Kashmiri struggle for the solution of the dispute according to UN resolution. He, however, repeated that as in the past Pakistan is opposed to external militants indulging in cross-border terrorism and subverting a genuine and glorious indigenous freedom movement nurtured with the innocent blood of Kashmiri people who have been sacrificing generation after generation so that their children could breathe in free air in future.
I would like to mention here that though prior to 9/11 the then President General Pervez Musharraf did describe such assortment of foreign elements-veterans of Afghan Jihad-- as "freedom fighters" but soon after he imposed a ban on their organisations, nipped their nefarious activities, tried to squeeze their funding sources and assured the international community that Pakistan would not be allowed by him, as a base to be used by such foreign elements for cross-border terrorism into India. I would like to add further that such foreign militants as a matter of fact have damaged the Kashmiri cause more rather than helping their just struggle for freedom.
Mr Zardari's remarks regarding India too have been misinterpreted. Mr Zardari--without any prejudice to the UN resolutions on Kashmir--believes that the process of normalisation between India and Pakistan need to be continued and composite dialogue with India has to be sustained. As regards India's nuclear deal with US is concerned he did say Pakistan had no objection to it as long as Pakistan was treated at par. He further added that Pakistan is not scared of India's economic growth in any way and can stand up to it.
Notwithstanding the strategic national interests of Pakistan-what is good for its survival and honourable existence--from its inception PPP has sustained all through history a Kashmir policy that seeks the solution to the core issue on the basis of right of self-determination. Without prejudice to the UN resolutions for plebiscite the PPP has sought to settle the dispute through bilateral negotiations. And at no stage-while discussing various options- it indulged in about turns on the matter as a tactical methodology adopted by many rulers in the past including General (Retired) Musharraf.
Last but not the least-shocking indeed was a discussion on a newly mushroomed private TV channel (allegedly associated with the Kashmiris) in which Mr Zardari's speech at the UN and his mention of Kashmir as a core issue was target of ill-founded ridicule. The two musketeers in the box were rightly responded by a caller who asked as to what else did they want Mr Zardari to say in support of Kashmir issue if not call it a core issue-did they want him to declare war on India from the UN platform? And then caller's conclusion was more pertinent and his wise advice for the clown-turned-TV commentators was also appropriate. He observed that President Zardari was caught in a very difficult situation-running what now is described-as the most dangerous place in the world, the caller was absolutely right in putting it across-that first and foremost responsibility of Mr Zardari is to save Pakistan from sinking in an economic swamp compounded by Pakistan's war on terror and to protect the country from being conquered by foreign terrorists and their indigenous supporters.
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