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| Pakistan fighting for water, not Kashmiri Muslims | | |
RUSTAM
EARLY TIMES REPORT
JAMMU, May 13: Dr Syed Nazir Gilani, secretary general of the Jammu and Kashmir Council for Human rights (JKCHR), who otherwise says that "water resources in the natural habitat of Kashmir need to be defended as an integral part of self-determination", is wrong when he asserts that the "water dispute at Mangla, Baglihar and Diamir has made keener the Kashmiri people's interest in their natural resource". No Kashmiri leader has taken up this issue in right earnest.
Even the votaries of self-rule Mufti Mohammad Sayeed and Mehbooba Mufti of the people's Democratic property have failed to take up this matter in an effective way. Moreover, their insistence on India-Pakistan joint-management of the state waters should establish that they are interested more in meeting the water needs of Pakistan than in making optimum use of the state waters for the well-being of the people of the state, notwithstanding the fact that Mufti Mohammad Sayeed as Chief Minister had on March 12, 2005 rejected on the floor of the Assembly as "misplaced" the objections of Pakistan on the Baglihar hydel project and said the "state has not violated the Indus Water Treaty". He had described the Baglihar hydel project as the "flagship project" of the state and asserted very loudly "it would be completed at all costs".
What about Syed Salahuddin, chairman of the Pakistan-occupied-based United Jehad Council (UJC) and Hizbul Mujahideen? This so-called Kashmir leader, who says that he is fighting for the Kashmiri Muslims' right to self-determination, has on occasions more than one publicly stated that the Kashmiri boys are actually fighting on behalf of Pakistan so that Islamabad gains control over the state's Indus, Jhelum and Chenab rivers. Similarly, as early as in October 2002, the then president of Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir Mohammad Anwar Khan had told Urdu newspapers that "Kashmiris are fighting for the security, strength and prosperity of Pakistan".
Not only this, Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir Prime Minister Sikandar Hayat Khan had also made almost similar comments on March 6, 2003 while speaking in a seminar. He had said: "Even peace between Punjab and Sindh depends on water and, therefore, on Kashmir…The freedom fighters of Kashmir are in reality fighting for Pakistan's water security and have prevented India from constructing a dam on the Wular Barrage".
The statements made by Syed Salahuddin, Mohammad Anwar Khan and Sikandar Hayat Khan prove Dr Syed Nazir Gilani wrong and establish the true motive behind the ongoing "freedom struggle" in Kashmir. They are not fighting for the people of Kashmir. They are only fighting for and on behalf of Pakistan.
That Pakistan is interested more in the state waters, and not in the Muslim of Kashmir, can be seen from the report filed by none other than former Editor UNI Samuel Baid on April 3, 2005. The report read like this: "Soon after the promulgation of Martial law in Pakistan in October 1958, General Ayub Khan turned his attention to the rivers of Jammu and Kashmir which, he said, were indispensable for the economic survival of his country. He made a failed attempt in 1965 to capture this state".
"General Pervez Musharraf is thus second Pakistani military ruler for whom Kashmir is a core issue not because of ideology but because of Pakistan's water requirements. While for Ayub Kashmir was indispensable for Pakistan's economic survival, for General Musharraf it is indispensable for both the country's economic survival and for its national integrity. He has discarded Pakistan's five-decade-old stand on the United Nations resolution on (Jammu and) Kashmir and does not talk of accession as his country's ideology. Both Ayub and General Musharraf made water from (Jammu and) Kashmir a precondition for peace with India. Like Ayub, General Musharraf made an unsuccessful attempt to grab Kashmir in May 1999 by invading Kargil".
"As a brigadier at the Royal College of Defence Studies in London in 1990, Musharraf had presented a paper with an unusually long title: 'The Arms Race in the Indo-Pakistan Subcontinent. Conflicts with the Pressing Requirements of Socio-economic Development. What are its Causes? Is there a Remedy?' The gist of this paper is the suggestion that the rivers of (Jammu and) Kashmir hold the key to the future conflict between India and Pakistan". (To be continued)
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