Secretary General of World Kashmir Awareness Forum (WKAF), Dr Ghulam Nabi Fai, has said that Kashmiris demand the implementation of the UN resolution of August 13, 1948 that acknowledged their right to self-determination. According to Kashmir media service, Dr Ghulam Nabi Fai in a statement issued in Washington said that Kashmiris in Jammu and Kashmir, the US and worldwide will observe the 75th anniversary of the unimplemented UN Commission for India and Pakistan (UNCIP) resolution of August 13, 1948.
He said, that resolution states that ‘the Government of India and the Government of Pakistan reaffirm their wish that the future status of the state of Jammu and Kashmir shall be determined in accordance with the will of the people.’ He said, there was much in the resolution that was controversial between India and Pakistan but the proposal of a plebiscite was not.
“That is clear from the statement made on January 28, 1948 by Ambassador Fernand van Langenhove of Belgium as the President of the Security Council. He said that ‘the documents at our disposal show agreement between the parties on the following points: the plebiscite must be conducted under conditions which will ensure complete impartiality; and the plebiscite will therefore be held under the aegis of the United Nations,” he added.
Dr Fai reminded that the US, the UK, and France have traditionally been committed supporters of the plebiscite agreement as the only way to resolve the Kashmir dispute. They sponsored all of the Security Council resolutions which called for a plebiscite. Their commitment was indicated by a personal appeal made by America’s President Harry Truman and Britain’s Prime Minister Clement Atlee that differences over demilitarization be submitted to arbitration by the Plebiscite Administrator, a distinguished American war hero: Admiral Chester Nimitz.—APP
