Letter to Mr Shehbaz Sharif
Prime Minister of the Islamic Republic of Pakistan
Constitution Avenue, Islamabad
Pakistan
Honourable Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif
Greeting!
Your Excellency,
Please accept my heartiest congratulations on becoming the 23rd Prime Minister of Pakistan. I have no doubt in my mind that you will leave no stone unturned in your endeavour to bring Pakistan out of the current social, economic and political crisis.
Your excellency,
In your maiden speech in the Pakistan National Assembly delivered on April 11 you mentioned Kashmir. That shows how important you consider the unresolved territorial dispute between Pakistan and India.
Your excellency,
I sincerely hope that under your premiership the above mention territorial dispute can be laid to rest once and for all. I would like to make a few suggestions regarding a gradual workable solution for the peaceful resolution the so-called Kashmir issue.
1) That as a good will gesture your government should declare a general amnesty for all Jammu-Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan dissidents who for one reason or the other have been forced into exile including self-exile.
2) All cases against political activists from Jammu-Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan be withdrawn.
3) Skardu-Kargil Road to be reopened for divided families to reunite and for trade between Indian union territory Ladakh and Gilgit-Baltistan to be re-established.
4) Chakothi sector road to be reopened for divided families to reunite and for trade to commence between Indian union territory and Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
5) Any launch pads that are operational in Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir for conducting illegal infiltration across the LoC into Kashmir Valley should be dismantled.
6) All terrorist training camps in Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir should be shut down.
7) CPEC should be suspended until the territorial dispute between Pakistan, China and India is resolved.
8) Bilateral talks between Pakistan and India should begin without further delay to settle the so-called Kashmir issue.
Your excellency,
I would like to take this opportunity to remind you that the Maharaja of the state of Jammu and Kashmir Hari Singh had signed a Standstill Agreement with Mr Muhammad Ali Jinnah, the founder of your country, in August 1947. Despite the fact that an agreement was signed, Pakistani army along with tribal mercenaries attacked our state on October 22, 1947.
Your excellency,
On October 26, 1947 our Maharaja signed an Instrument of Accession with India and the state of Jammu and Kashmir after which Jammu and Kashmir legally and constitutionally became part of the newly established Republic of India. As Indian troops landed at Srinagar airport and pushed Pakistani invaders back, a ceasefire orchestrated at the behest of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) brought the war to a stop.
Your excellency,
The United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan (UNCIP) report published in 1948 accused Pakistan, and not India, of aggression against the state of Jammu and Kashmir. It was under the careful examination of the UNCIP report that UNSC asked for the Pakistan troops and non-residents to vacate the occupied territories.
Your excellency,
The territories that Pakistan is holding under its occupation belong to the state of Jammu and Kashmir that was acceded to India by our Maharaja.
Your excellency,
It is therefore the need of the hour that you carefully revisit Pakistan’s official narrative bombarded upon the people of Pakistan and wider global community according to which Pakistan claims that India is occupying Kashmir ‘illegally’.
I sincerely hope that when your nominated foreign minister Mr Bilawal Bhutto Zardari takes his oath and sets out on a journey to foreign countries, he will refrain from playing the old flawed tune of communal hate and a narrative based on unjustifiable animosity toward India and her Hindu majority population and promote love and peace among our two countries.
Your excellency,
I understand that you are faced with challenges on all fronts, however, by solving the so-called Kashmir issue it will immediately open the doors of brotherly help and cooperation from India that Pakistan is so much in need of. It is my sincere belief that once the Kashmir issue is resolved peacefully, Pakistan will be able to fully focus on its domestic crisis and uplift most of her 220 million people living in poverty and destitution.
I hope that you receive my letter in positive spirit and bring more than seven decades of unnecessary hostility between Pakistan and India to an end.
Thank you very much
Yours truly
Dr Amjad Ayub Mirza
Chairman
Jammu Kashmir Peace and Development Initiative
Dr Amjad Ayub Mirza is an author and a human rights activist from Mirpur in PoJK. He currently lives in exile in the UK. The views expressed in this article are those of the author and do not represent the stand of this publication.
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