Islamabad August 8, 2019: Speaker National Assembly Asad Qaiser has written letters to the Speakers and Presiding Officers of the 198 Inter-Parliamentary Union Member Parliaments drawing their attention towards the historic fraud, committed against the beleaguered people of the Indian Occupied State of Jammu and Kashmir (IOK) by the Indian Government. The Speaker called upon them to raise voice against such heinous crimes against humanity and help the innocent people of the State of Jammu and Kashmir in achieving their due right to self-determination, as pledged to them by the United Nations Security Council Resolutions.

Apprising his counterparts, the Speaker said that the Government of Mr. Narendra Modi unilaterally scrapped Articles 35-A and 370, respectively from the Indian Constitution on 5th August, 2019 which had granted limited internal autonomy to the occupied State of Kashmir till its final settlement and that of its populace. He further said that by doing so, the Government of India has, by usurpation, formally annexed the disputed territory, depriving the people of Kashmir to the sole nationality and property rights in the State. The Speaker said that the latest assault of annexation was in addition to the excessive use of force as well as exhaustively-documented human rights abuses, carried out by the Indian forces in IOK since last seven decades. Expressing his apprehension, the Speaker said that deteriorating situation between two nuclear neighbours can put the entire world peace into severe danger because of the hegemonic designs of New Delhi.

Narrating the historic background of the Kashmir dispute, the Speaker said that Article 35-A and 370 of the Indian Constitution were inserted by the founding fathers of India as a mark of their commitment to the UN Security Council Resolutions of 1948 towards a peaceful and negotiated resolution of Kashmir as per the aspirations of the people of Kashmir through a free and fair plebiscite. He said that the Indian Government has long back-tracked from that commitment, thus putting the last nail in the coffin by even depriving the people of Indian Occupied Jammu & Kashmir of limited autonomy they had till now.

Speaker Asad Qaiser said that apart from this heinous crime, the entire pro-plebiscite Kashmiri leadership and former Chief Ministers of IOK Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah have been put under arrest. He said that the heinous act of annexation has been carried out through a hand-picked Governor, on whose lone advice the entire constitutional arrangement has been packed while the puppet Legislative Assembly of IOK has been held in abeyance.

Informing his counterparts, the Speaker said that the entire Occupied Kashmir Valley has virtually been put under siege with a dawn-to-dusk curfew, suspension of internet services and a complete blockade of any other means of communication. He said that such desperate actions have further aggravated an already grave situation in the Region. Moreover, there are daily unprovoked violations of the Line of Control with massive shelling from the Indian forces on civilian and military targets on the Pakistan’s side of Kashmir. He said that the Indian armed forces used cluster bombs against innocent civilians, killing and injuring men, women and children living along-side the Line of Control during last week.

The Speaker informed that the Parliament of Pakistan held an emergency session on August 6 and 7, 2019 to take stock of the situation and has passed a unanimous Resolution in this regard. He said that the Resolution had been enclosed for their kind notice with a request to kindly place it before their esteemed Legislature.