Muhammad Raza Malik
Kashmir struggle close to victory as women come out for …The appointment of incarcerated JKLF Chief Mohammad Yasin Malik’s wife Mushaal Hussein Mullick as a Special Assistant to the care-taker prime minister (SAPM) is a crystal clear message to India that Pakistan will stand by the people of Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir and that Islamabad will not leave them at the mercy of brutal Indian regime, no matter what the situation may be. It will also negate the propaganda being peddled by India that Pakistan has forgotten Kashmir.
The appointment will once again reassure the Kashmiri people that Pakistan is firmly behind them in their just struggle for right to self-determination notwithstanding the economic and other challenges that the country is facing.
This also symbolically shows that Pakistan supports the voice of Mushaal, who is fighting for a fair trial of her incarcerated husband and raising the issue of human rights violations being perpetrated by Indian troops in the occupied territory.
It is for these reasons that Mushaal Mullick’s appointment has ruffled the feathers of BJP lead-ers. Unnerved by the decision of Pakistan, BJP national general secretary and party in-charge J&K, Tarun Chugh, said Mushaal Mullick’s appointment as Minister in the neighboring country endorses India’s claim that Pakistan is harbouring militancy and militants. Chugh claimed Pakistan has always provided refuge to most wanted militants who are involved in destabilising security and sovereignty of India. He also said that Mushaal Mullick has been involved in spreading fabricated stories against India and its Army.
Responding to BJP leader’s criticism, Peoples Democratic Party (PDP) chief Mehbooba Mufti rightly said that BJP instead of taking potshots at Pakistan for Mushaal Mullick’s nomination into the interim government should take a lesson from this. She said that the appointment at least shows that Pakistan was rewarding and honouring those who have been working for the Kashmir cause but unfortunately what BJP government does was even to disrespect and dishonour people like Sheikh Abdullah who pleaded Indian viewpoint for his entire life.
Mushaal Hussein Mullick, who married the JKLF chief in 2009, recently became one of the five SAPMs with ministerial status in the cabinet of caretaker Prime Minister of Pakistan, Anwarul Haq Kakar. She will be a special assistant to PM Kakar on human rights and women’s empowerment.
It is worth mentioning here that Pakistan has been strongly and unequivocally supporting the Kashmiris’ just cause for freedom as pledged through a number of UN Security Council resolutions on Kashmir. The country has been raising the Kashmiris’ voice at every global forum. Islamabad has been urging the international community to play its role in resolving the Kashmir dispute to end killings and other human rights violations in the occupied territory.
Pakistan’s support to the freedom movement has always acted as a morale booster for the struggling Kashmiris, who consider Kashmir and Pakistan as two sides of the same coin.
It is India which has been acting as the enemy of the Kashmiri people and has remained the biggest hurdle in resolving the Kashmir dispute by refusing to implement the UN Security Council resolutions that guaranteed the right to self-determination to the people of Jammu and Kashmir. India’s intransigence on the Kashmir dispute has endangered the peace in the South Asian region.
India’s brutal policy of suppression in occupied Jammu and Kashmir could exacerbate the situation and push the region towards war and destruction as both India and Pakistan are nuclear armed countries. So, there is dire need that the international community must intervene to protect the Kashmiri people from Indian onslaught and ensure just resolution to the Kashmir dispute, which is vital for establishing peace and security in the south Asian region.
