LAHORE - The entire nation shares the agony of the people of occupied Kashmir and wants their liberation from the Hindu fanatics’ setup at the earliest. But the line of action it is pursuing to help their brethren in trouble is not expected to bring the desired results even in decades.
The ruling coalition and the opposition parties are poles apart at a time when unity is the foremost requirement.
The opposition parties, before playing any role for the liberation of Kashmiri people, want to ‘liberate’ the country from the PTI government.
They held an all-party conference at Islamabad on Monday and decided to come up with a charter of demands for the government. Another APC would be held at the federal capital on Aug 29 and a schedule announced for a march on Islamabad and ouster of the government by the end of the year.
There can’t be a worse decision in the prevailing situation.
They plan to oust a government they allege had been inducted by ‘selectors’ – a term they use for the military establishment. Perhaps they don’t know that the military establishment would not like any upset at the political scene at such a crucial stage, which had also necessitated the continuity of the chain of command.
Whatever the line of action of the ‘selectors’, the question is: If the opposition parties have to use their energies against the PTI government, how will it be possible for them to do anything for the oppressed people of occupied Kashmir? And when the nation is disunited why would India come under pressure?
Interestingly enough, JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman, the APC host, has been reported to have said at the post-event news conference that India dared not annex Kashmir as long as he was the Kashmir committee chairman.
Maybe it is so. But perhaps India selected this time for this illegal decision, knowing that Fazlur Rehman and people with him would do nothing against such a step.
Patriotism demands that opposition parties should give up their Islamabad lockdown programme and focus all their energies to get the Kashmiris their rights.
Lockdown, in the prevailing situation, would mean that the PTI government would have to shift its focus from IOK situation to the domestic front. This would disappoint the Kashmiris, who have pinned all hopes on Pakistan. Also, this would further weaken the economy, which has not stabilized despite foreign loans worth billions of dollars.
Forgetting their political differences for the time being, the opposition parties should join hands with the PTI government and enable it to argue Kashmiris’ case at the international level in a better way.
The government should be allowed to implement its manifesto and complete its mandated term of five years just as the PML-N and the PPP had served out theirs.
The ‘failure’ of the PTI government on all fronts at the end of the day – as the opposition parties allege - would rid them of a major rival and they would stand better prospects in the next election.
The situation also demands that the government should also rise above other political considerations and take steps to win the support of opposition parties. Even the formation of a national government may be a good idea to thwart the enemy designs.
