“The Kashmir cause cannot be advanced through symbolic observances alone; it must be transformed into a sustained international civil rights movement,” said Sardar Masood Khan, former Ambassador of Pakistan to the United States, China and the United Nations, and former President of Azad Jammu and Kashmir, while addressing gatherings at the Institute of Policy Research Islamabad (IPRI), the Institute of Regional Studies (IRS), and Foundation University.
Speaking on the continuing challenges confronting the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, Ambassador Masood Khan stressed that Pakistan must move beyond token expressions of solidarity and pursue a comprehensive, year-round diplomatic, legal and intellectual campaign to keep the Kashmir issue at the forefront of the international agenda. He maintained that symbolic commemorations alone were insufficient unless complemented by sustained engagement with international institutions, academia, media, civil society and policy forums.
Ambassador Khan reiterated that India’s unilateral actions of 5 August 2019 violated the relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions and could not alter the internationally recognized disputed status of Jammu and Kashmir. He observed that the abrogation of Article 370 and related constitutional changes had further eroded the political and legal rights of the people of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, while demographic engineering, electoral restructuring and restrictive laws had fundamentally altered the region’s political landscape. Reviewing Pakistan’s diplomatic efforts, Ambassador Khan noted that Islamabad had consistently raised the Kashmir dispute at the United Nations Security Council, the Human Rights Council .
