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| Spirit for liberation never died in occupied Kashmir | |
By Farooq Ganderbali
A pro-liberation crusader from POK has written a couple of books in Urdu to deplore his compatriots’ insensitivity to their position as slaves of Pakistan. About 13 years ago Arif Shahid wrote “Kaun Azad, Kaun Ghulam” and (who is free, who is slave?) and “Ghulam ka Safar” (A journey through slavery) giving a detailed, graphic picture of the plight of Kashmiris, who have been made slaves in their own land, but there is no, or hardly any, resistance because Pakistan has given them an injection to lift them high on “blissful feeling that they are azad (free). Thus, movements for liberation don’t get adequate support. Then there are intelligence agencies, their agents among Islamic organisations and Jehadi and terrorist groups to handle such movements. The most effective weapon is the allegation against a liberation seeker that he is an agent of India.
However, such movements howsoever weak and short-lived, occasional revolts of Pakistan funded politicians indicate that this injection has not paralysed the spirit of freedom in 1954 people revolted against Pakistan. Now there are parties who try to keep this spirit alive. These parties had formed All Parties National Alliance (APNA) to campaign against Pakistan’s occupation of Kashmir. But it could not make any waves. Its high point of campaign was its attempt to fight Assembly election in occupied Kashmir without signing the mandatory undertaking that binds every candidate to supporting Kashmir’s accession to Pakistan. The Election Commission therefore rejected APNA candidates’ nominations. But this brought APNA to international notice and belied the long existing impression that Pakistan faced no resistance to its occupation of a part of Kashmir.
APNA does not have in it mainstream political parties. As Arif Shahid says, mainstream parties whether ruling or in opposition are those which get secret funds plus other illegal benefits from intelligence agencies. These parties – whether in power or out of it take no time to discard their pro-Pakistan masks and support Azadi for Kashmir if their political power is snatched away from them or if they apprehend a threat to their power. A classic example of this comic volta face is Sardar Abdul Qayyaum, who intermittently ruled occupied Kashmir as leader of the Muslim conference with Pakistani Establishment’s support. Whenever this support was withdrawn and he was out of power he revolted against Kashmir’s subjugation by Pakistan to appeal to pro-freedom sentiments in occupied Kashmir. In 1975, when he was dislodged as the President of occupied Kashmir by Mr Zulfikar Ali Bhutto’s Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) he wrote a letter to Shiekh Abdullah in Srinagar seeking his help to liberate Kashmir where he wrote, people lived in pathetic conditions. Sheikh Abdullah had just taken over as Chief Minister of Kashmir following an agreement with Prime Minister Indira Gandhi. Qayyum’s letter was published by a Sringar Urdu weekly “Aina”.
But Qayyum’s tantrums could not attract any serious attention because of his contribution to the enslavement of Kashmiris by Pakistan. When in power he projected himself as more loyal than the king. He tried cleanse occupied Kashmir of Kashmiriyat and enforce Punjabiat by ordering women to wear Salwar Kameez instead of their traditional Kashmiri dress. He ordered that all Kashmiris should swear by his coined ideology “Kashmir Banega Pakistan” (Kashmir will become Pakistan). It is said he was responsible for Section 56 in the 1974 constitution which empowered the Pakistan Government to remove a government in occupied Kashmir if it failed to safeguard Pakistan’s interests.
There are many more Kashmiri leaders who acted as Kashmiri nationalist when out of power or when they anticipated threat to their power. The present Prime Minster Abdul Majeed is another example. His PPP came to power in occupied Kashmir when its parent PPP was ruling Pakistan. But since May last year when the Nawaz Muslim League returned to power in Islamabad the PPP has been living under fear of ouster as the fate of ruling parties in occupied Kashmir has traditionally depended on the change of rulers in Islamabad. Choudhary Majeed’s fear of the ouster has been strengthened by the defeat of his party candidate in a by election to the legislative Assembly last month. The Prime Minister alleged Federal Minister for Kashmir Affairs conspired with the Chief Secretary and the Inspector-General of Police (IGP) to defeat the PPP candidate. They deployed Rangers without Prime Minister’s consent. Choudhary Majeed quoted from a speech of Pakistan’s Minister of Kashmir Affairs saying that he could join the working of his government with the help of the Chief Secretary and the IGP.
Choudhary Majeed sacked both the Chief Secretary and the IGP, defying Pakistan’s authority to post these gentlemen in occupied Kashmir as per the 1949 Karachi Agreement and the 1974 Constitution. The PPP supported their “Prime Minister’s” action. However, the Chief Secretary and IGP ignored it and next day the “Prime Minister” withdrew his orders when Pakistan’s Prime Minister ordered him to do so.
Now returning to Arif Shahid’s thesis that the “slaves” of occupied Kashmir have been given an injection by Pakistan to make them feel they are “azad”, one feels, he undermines the pro-liberation aspirations hidden in every chest even in the chest of people like Qayyum Khan who resisted the entry of the Muslim League whose two-nation ideology was rejected by Kashmiris. Pakistan lays its claim to Kashmir on the basis of his theory. Ordinary Kashmiris in occupied Kashmir burst out on the streets in 1954 in Pallandri to demand freedom from Pakistan. They faced a brutal Army action. Their women were dishonoured in their homes.
One may ask if the Kashmiris of occupied Kashmir still have these aspirations in their chests then why not more demonstrations. There are two big reasons: (1) fear – fear of the Army, intelligence agencies and Pakistani Jehadis and Kashmir – specific terrorist organisations. (2) National and international media policy not to risk reporting occupied Kashmir.
(Opinions expressed in write-ups/articles/Letters are the sole responsibility of the authors and they may not represent the scoopnews.in)
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