ISLAMABAD – Chairman Kashmir Committee Shehryar Khan Afridi on Wednesday said Pakistan would keep raising Kashmir issue at all international forums.
Presiding over a meeting of the Parliamentary Committee on Kashmir, Afridi laid out a holistic and proactive plan of action of the Kashmir Committee to help raise Kashmir issue at all global forums.
He said the plan was an outcome of year-long efforts made by the committee and experts working with the committee.
The committee expressed unanimous support over the Kashmir Policy adopted by the federal government and accorded consent to the action plan on Kashmir.
Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and National Security Advisor Moeed Yusuf made presentations on the government strategy on observing Solidarity Day on Kashmir on February 5.
He said that the committee had been working on building sub-committees in the form of advisory boards to cover all possible fronts on Kashmir.
He said the Kashmir Committee had shifted its functioning from traditional path to a holistic narrative building on Kashmir.
Afridi said the Kashmir Committee had been working with Pakistan Telecommunication Authority (PTA) to ensure provision of level playing field on the digital space.
He said that an Advisory Board had been formed involving information technology experts to ensure maximum space on digital front.
Afridi said for adding new vigour and punch to Kashmir narrative, Kashmir Committee had formed an Advisory Board on Academia to push for new research and content to the narrative on Kashmir.
He said that following the western model, Kashmir Committee had formed an Advisory Board on Culture to further story telling on Kashmir. He said that Indian occupational regime had suppressed media in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) and stories and imagery was not coming out despite matchless sacrifices by Kashmiri journalists.
Afridi said on January 31, Indian colonial regime in Kashmir had registered a First Information Report against Kashmiri media outlet, The Kashmir Walla, to suppress media freedom.
He said that criminal cases were being registered against journalists in Indian occupational regime to gag media as India wanted to stop imagery and stories coming out of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
He said the cultural front was being formed to push narrative on Kashmir. He said that top artistes, thinkers and film makers were being added to the Advisory Board on Culture to project Kashmiri culture which was being destroyed by the occupational regime in IIOJK under its genocide plan. Afridi said in order to project Kashmiri sports, Kashmir Committee was supporting Kashmir Premier League to put Kashmir on global sports map.
He said Youth Ambassadors were being projected to become v-logers, bloggers and social media activist to help story telling on Kashmir.
Afridi said among one of the newest agendas of Kashmir Committee was to work on EU Disinfo Lab report to expose the dubious approaches of India to create bias in global opinion by projecting fake news and baseless propaganda against Pakistan through fake media outlets, fake websites and fake non-governmental organisations (NGOs).
He said that Kashmir Committee also formed an Advisory Board on Lawfare to explore future strategy and options on legal aspects of Kashmir dispute.
He said the Kashmir Committee also worked on the research on Kashmir in liaison with the Kashmiri scholars and think tanks.
The Parliamentary Committee on Kashmir chairman said Kashmir Committee had also added civil society as a new agent in Kashmir narrative building on international forums. He said the committee had identified 22 global forums to raise Kashmir dispute.
Afridi said that Kashmir Committee had for the first time in history took deaf community on board to use gestures to tell story of Kashmir to the world.
He said the Kashmir Committee had been developing its own first-ever dedicated website to provide verified data on Azad Jammu and Kashmir as well as IIOJK in six different languages.
Speaking on the occasion, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said that all political parties should adopt a bipartisan approach on Kashmir.
He said Kashmiri people had paid unprecedented sacrifices for freedom from illegal Indian occupation and they stood committed to their fervour for freedom.
He said massive Indian oppression against Kashmiris had alienated the Kashmiri people. Qureshi said Indian occupational forces had been involved in false flag operation in Illegally Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir but EU Disinfo Lab had fully exposed the Indian atrocities and its false narrative on Kashmir.
The Foreign Minister said India was escaping dialogue and the world had recognised this fact. Qureshi said Pakistan had time and again expressed its willingness for adjudication by United Nations Secretar General but India had been avoiding arbitration. He said India was biggest hurdle in regional connectivity.
Moeed Yusuf gave an overview of the government’s efforts to internationalise the Kashmir dispute.
Separately, addressing a seminar held under the aegis of Institute of Regional Studies and Kashmir Committee here, Afridi said Pakistan would continue raising Kashmir issue on all legal, human rights and political forums until its resolution.
He said India’s Hindutva regime should be tried for committing war crimes in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir. He said that Indian regime had criminally misled the World opinion as EU Disinfo Lab had fully exposed a network of fake media outlets and NGOs being operated by India.
Afridi said, “The Kashmiri people ask United Nations Security Council to materialise its commitment to hold an impartial and free plebiscite to decide their fate independently.”
He said that Pakistan would keep exposing the Indian expansionist agenda and it could no more mislead the world.
— to nation.com.pk
