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Sunday, October 31, 2010

[ALOCHONA] Independent judiciary ?



Freedom of judiciary eludes nation

The separation of judiciary enters the fourth year of its functioning today. The last caretaker government on this day in 2007 separated judiciary from the executive.Legal experts have observed that the people are yet to get benefits of separation of the judiciary as there are still some shortcomings in the way of making the judiciary independent and efficient.

They underlined the need for removal of all barriers in the way of establishing independent secretariat of the judiciary to make the separation of judiciary meaningful.

Former Adviser of the caretaker government for Law and Justice Barrister Mainul Hosein played the key role in implementing the long cherished demand of the nation. On December 2, 1999, the Appellate Division of the Supreme Court had issued a 12-point directives for separation of the judiciary from the executive, giving a six-month time to implement it.

Earlier in 1995, the General Secretary of Judicial Officers' Association Masdar Hossain along with 441 judicial officers filed a writ petition with the High Court in this regard.On January 16, 2007, the then caretaker government took initiative to separate the judiciary from the executive and made a gazette notification in this regard.

Barrister Mainul Hosein told The New Nation yesterday that the objective of separation of judiciary is yet to be fully achieved because of non-completion of some related activities."We wanted independence of the judiciary because without this democracy is not safe. The law passed to separate the judiciary from the executive is not enough. So, we took the initiative for forming a Supreme Judicial Council and initiated the enactment of a law for the purpose. But the proposed law is yet to be passed," he said.

In the absence of a Supreme Judicial Council the appointment of judges are being made on partisan considerations, which is not congenial for the independence of the judiciary, he noted. "Again, we wanted the Supreme Court to have its own secretariat and enjoy financial freedom. But these have not been established. We also wanted a system of appointment of State Lawyers,' who would not change with the change of governments. But lawyers continue to be appointed afresh every time a new government is elected to power," Barrister Mainul observed.
"The separation and independence of the judiciary is thus yet to take a complete shape," he added.

Supreme Court Bar Association (SCBA) President Khandker Mahbub Hossain yesterday told The New Nation that the judiciary was separated but in practice it is still being controlled by the executive branch.He demanded restoration of Article 116 of the Constitution to ensure control of judiciary over the functioning of the lower courts. The SCBA President said changes in the mentality of the judges of the lower courts should also be changed as they worked for a long time under the control of the executive branch.

Barrister Rafiqul Islam Miah told The New Nation, "The hopes, with which we started the journey of separation of the Judiciary, have not been materialised yet."
 
"We have 12 directions, given by the HC in its judgment, in separating the Judiciary from the Executive branch of the state. A few of the directions were implemented while most of those are yet to see daylight. Barrister Rafiq, who is also the president of Jatiyatabadi Ainjibi Forum, said."A strong democracy and rule of law depend on the independence of the Judiciary," he said, stressing on separation of the Judiciary in real sense following the HC judgment.

Rafiqul Islam Miah said, "The Article 116 of the Constitution of 1972 must be restored for real independence of the Judiciary. Now the Law Ministry in practice is exercising power of posting, promoting and granting leave of absence and maintaining discipline of the judicial magistrates and others. It is totally against separation of the Judiciary"

"A separate secretariat is a must for the Judiciary. But we have not seen such an initiative yet," he said.A higher official of the Judiciary seeking anonymity said, "Financial separation must be achieved first, if we the separation of the judiciary is to come in a real sense."

Law Minister Barrister Shafique Ahmed yesterday told The New Nation, "The government is keen to make the Judiciary separate in the real sense. But the Judiciary first have to ask what it wants from the government."
"The government will act as per the demands of the Chief Justice," the Law Minister said.

Senior Awami League lawmaker Suranjit Sengupta, MP said though the judiciary was separated, people are not getting benefit from it.Referring to the suppression in appointing judges, he said the question has been raised in the legal community as to why a judge has been appointed by superseding 200 judges of lower courts.

http://nation.ittefaq.com/issues/2010/11/01/news0129.htm
 


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[ALOCHONA] Hindu temple vandalized by ruling party men in Bangladesh



Hindu temple vandalized by ruling party men in Bangladesh
 

A group of ruling party activists of Dhaka University wing vandalized several deities at Ramna Kali Mandir [Temple of goddess Kali in Dhaka] following confrontation between activists of the same party on question of collecting extortion from the locality.

Right after the incident, police arrested Animesh, Govinda and Prakash, who are members of Bangladesh Chhatra League [student from of the ruling party] from the spot while they were continuing such notoriety.

http://amardeshonline.com/pages/details/2010/11/01/51634

Police sources told reporters that the clash had erupted over ownership and extortion into shops located in the area.According to eye witnesses, during afternoon of Saturday [October 30, 2010], at least 45-50 activists of the ruling Bangladesh Awami League [BAL]'s student front, led by Utpal Saha, armed with machetes, iron rods, cricket stumps and hockey sticks went on the rampage and vandalized at least two deities inside the temple and ransacked the rooms of the priest.

It may be mentioned here that, since Bangladesh Awami League came in power in January 2009, members of its student wing are seen active in violence in almost all the university campuses in the country. Bangladesh Chhatra League is openly involving in extortion, terrorism, grabbing land and properties and various forms of illegal activities and the government has virtually become captive in their hands.

http://www.weeklyblitz.net/1063/hindu-temple-vandalized-by-ruling-party-men-in

http://www.newagebd.com/2010/nov/01/front.html

http://www.thedailystar.net/newDesign/latest_news.php?nid=26700



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[ALOCHONA] Uncle Sam, energy and peace in Asia



Uncle Sam, energy and peace in Asia
From the beginning, the US saw the TAPI's potential to bring Pakistan and India together and also bind the two South Asian adversaries to it, thus providing an underpinning to its overall Asian strategy. Moscow and Beijing would have a sense of unease about what is unfolding. The recent Moscow commentaries display some irritation with New Delhi. Last weekend there was an unusually preachy opinion-piece on India's 'Chechnya' — Kashmir,
writes MK Bhadrakumar

IN THE Orient, offspring don't rebuke parents, even if the latter are at fault — especially in the post-Soviet space where Marxian formalism continues to prevail as political culture. The sort of stern public rebuke bordering on short shrift that Ashgabat administered to Moscow is extraordinary.
   But then, Moscow tested Turkmen patience by trying to create confusion about Ashgabat's policy of positive 'neutrality' — building energy bridges to the West alongside its thriving cooperation with Russia and China.
   On Thursday, the Turkmen foreign ministry bluntly rejected any role for Russia in the proposed Turkmenistan-Afghanistan-Pakistan-India gas pipeline project, commonly known as TAPI. Ashgabat alleged that Moscow is spreading calumnies and expressed the hope that 'future statements by Russian officials will be guided by a sense of responsibility and reality.'
   The reference was to a friendly and seemingly helpful statement by Russian Deputy Prime Minister Igor Sechin (who accompanied President Dmitry Medvedev to the Turkmen capital last weekend) that Russian participation in the TAPI figured in the latest Russian-Turkmen summit talks and 'Gazprom may participate in this project in any capacity — builder, designer, participant, etc ... If Gazprom becomes a participant, then we will study possibilities of working in gas sales.'
   The Turkmen foreign ministry said, 'Turkmenistan views such statements as an attempt to hamper the normal course of our country's cooperation in the energy sector and call into question its obligations to its partners.' It added that there was 'no agreement whatsoever' regarding Russian participation in the TAPI.
   The TAPI presents a knot of paradoxes and the Russians who hold the pulse of the Central Asian energy scene would have sensed by now that Uncle Sam is close to untying the knot, finally, after a decade-and-a-half of sheer perseverance. The TAPI falls within the first circle of the Caspian great game. When it appears that Russia all but checkmated the United States and the European Union's plans to advance trans-Caspian energy projects bypassing Russia, a thrust appears from the south and east opening up stunning possibilities for the West.
   Russia promptly began slouching toward the TAPI—which, incidentally, was originally a Soviet idea but was appropriated by the United States no sooner than the USSR disintegrated—against the backdrop of renewed interest in the project recently among regional powers amid the growing possibility that Afghan peace talks might reconcile the Taliban and that despite the Kashmir problem, Pakistan and India wouldn't mind tangoing.
   The TAPI pipeline runs on a roughly 1,600-kilometre route along the ancient Silk Road from Turkmenistan's fabulous Dauletabad gas fields on the Afghan border to Herat in western Afghanistan, then onto Helmand and Kandahar, entering Pakistan's Quetta and turning east toward Multan, and ending up in Fazilka on the Indian side of Pakistan's eastern border. An updated Asian Development Bank estimate of 2008 put the project cost for the pipeline with an output of 33bcm annually at $7.6 billion.
   The signals from Ashgabat, Kabul, Islamabad and New Delhi in recent weeks uniformly underscored that the TAPI is in the final stage of take-off. India unambiguously signed up in August. On Wednesday, the Pakistan government gave approval to the project at a cabinet meeting in Islamabad. The ADB is open to financing the project and is expected to be the project's 'secretariat'.
   As things stand, there could be a meeting of the political leaderships of the four participating countries in December to formally kick-start the TAPI.
   The commencement of the TAPI is undoubtedly a defining moment for Turkmenistan (which is keen to diversify export routes), for Afghanistan (which hopes to get $300 million as transit fee annually and an all-round economic spin-off) and for Pakistan and India (which face energy shortages).
   However, the geopolitics trumps everything else. For the first time in six decades, India and Pakistan are becoming stakeholders in each other's development and growth — and it is taking place under American watch. The rapprochement would positively impact the Afghan chessboard where Pakistan and India are locked in a futile, utterly wasteful zero-sum game.
   
   NATO enters energy business
   THE most important geopolitical factor, perhaps, is that the US is the 'ideologue' of the project and its Great Central Asia strategy—aiming at rolling back Russian and Chinese influence in the region and forging the region's links with South Asia—is set to take a big step forward.
   India and Pakistan, traditional allies of Russia and China, are in essence endorsing the Great Central Asia strategy. It signifies a tectonic shift in the geopolitics and immensely strengthens the US's regional policies. India and Pakistan are becoming stakeholders in a long-term US presence in the region.
   Equally, NATO is set to take on the role of the provider of security for the TAPI, providing the alliance an added raison d'ĂȘtre for its long-term presence in Central Asia. NATO's role in energy security has been under discussion for some time. Russia used to robustly contest the concept, but its thoughts are mellowing as the reset with the US gains traction.
   Broadly, the NATO position was outlined by the alliance's former secretary general Jaap de Hoop Schaffer in January last year when he said: 'Protecting pipelines is first and foremost a national priority. And it should stay like that. NATO is not in the business of protecting pipelines. But when there's a crisis, or if a certain nation asks for assistance, NATO could, I think, be instrumental in protecting pipelines on land.'
   Clearly, the long-term 'strategic cooperation' agreement between NATO and Karzai's government which is expected to be signed at the alliance's summit in Lisbon on November 19 now assumes an altogether profound meaning.
   Besides, the TAPI is also a 'Western' project, as several NATO countries involved in Afghanistan's stabilisation—the US, Britain, Canada, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands and Norway—are also members of the ADB and TAPI is piloted by the US and Japan, two major shareholders in the ADB.
   More important, the BP Statistical Review 2009 puts Turkmenistan's known gas reserves so far at a staggering 7.94 trillion cubic metres. A 2008 audit of the gigantic South Yolotan-Osman field in western Turkmenistan by the UK firm Gaffney, Cline & Associates estimated the reserves of this field alone at anywhere between 4 to 14tcm of gas. Many more fields in Turkmenistan are yet to be audited. Without doubt, the propaganda that Turkmenistan lacks gas reserves to supply markets beyond Russia and China stands exposed.
   And the curious part is that South Yolotan-Osman—and the gas reserves in Uzbekistan and northern Afghanistan—can be linked to the TAPI and a TAPI branch line can be very easily extended from Quetta to the Pakistani port of Gwadar, in which case Europe can finally tap Central Asian energy reserves directly, dispensing with the Russian middleman.
   
   Obama has style
   QUITE obviously, the TAPI meshes well with the Afghan endgame. Karzai used to work for Unocal before he surfaced in Kabul as a statesman in 2001, and Unocal originally promoted TAPI in the mid-1990s. 'Good' Taliban were all along enthusiastic about the TAPI project provided the US traded with them as Afghan interlocutors.
   The US initially warmed up to the Taliban in the early 1990s as a stabilising factor that could put an end to the chaotic Mujahideen era and help facilitate the transportation of the Caspian and Central Asian energy to the world market via Pakistani ports. Senior Taliban officials were hosted by the US State Department and things were indeed going spectacularly well until militant 'Arab fighters' began influencing the Taliban leadership and spoiled everything.
   The Americans dithered far too long in according recognition to the Taliban and Osama bin Laden grabbed the window of opportunity. Nonetheless, there is reason to believe that the contacts continued all the way up to the eve of the al-Qaeda's 9/11 attacks.
   The 'good' Taliban are in business again. NATO aircraft ferry them to Kabul so that they can urgently talk peace.
   From the beginning, the US saw the TAPI's potential to bring Pakistan and India together and also bind the two South Asian adversaries to it, thus providing an underpinning to its overall Asian strategy. Moscow and Beijing would have a sense of unease about what is unfolding. The recent Moscow commentaries display some irritation with New Delhi. Last weekend there was an unusually preachy opinion-piece on India's 'Chechnya' — Kashmir.
   The plain truth is that the TAPI revives the Silk Road, which can also unlock Afghanistan's multi-trillion dollar untold mineral wealth and transport the hidden treasures to Gwadar port for shipment to faraway lands.
   If George W Bush were handling Barack Obama's job today, he would probably thread into his forthcoming November visit to New Delhi a regional summit where the TAPI gets formalised as a historic American initiative in regional cooperation.
   But that isn't Obama's style — descending from the skies wearing a windbreaker and proclaiming premature victory from the deck of an aircraft carrier. He trusts 'smart power'.
   Obama would intellectualise the TAPI as the harbinger of peace in one of the most destitute regions on the planet — which it indeed is. He would then probably sit down and explain that what seems a setback in the Caspian great game is ultimately for China's and Russia's larger good. A 'stable' Afghanistan is in their interests, after all.
   Asia Times Online, October 30. Ambassador MK Bhadrakumar was a career diplomat in the Indian Foreign Service. His assignments included the Soviet Union, South Korea, Sri Lanka,Germany, Afghanistan, Pakistan,Uzbekistan, Kuwait and Turkey.
 


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[ALOCHONA] Hollywood movie on Bangabandhu



Hollywood movie on Bangabandhu

Bangladeshi cine production and distribution company, Vibgyor Films is planning to undertake a new project of an English feature film named BANGABANDHU, which will be based on the life of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman, the founding father of Bangladesh. Theme of this planned film will be similar as English feature film named Gandhi, which was based on the life of Mahatma Gandhi. Ben Kingsley played the role of Mahatma Gandhi in this film.

Earlier some Bollywood [Indian film industry] producers planned to make a film on the life of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman. At that time, it was even rumored that, Bollywood king, Amitabh Bachchan was going to play the role of Bangabandhu.

Hollywood produced movie BANGABANDHU will reach millions of audiences in the world. Though the initial language of this movie will be in English, it is expected that, later it will also be dubbed and sub-titled in Bangla, Hindi, French, Spanish, Russian, Chinese, Korean, Hebrew and Arabic.

Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman led the war of independence of Bangladesh in 1971. He became the Prime Minister and later President of the country after the independence of the nation from Pakistani occupation. But, in 1975, Bangabandhu was brutally assassinated along with his family members. Bangabandhu's daughters, Sheikh Hasina [current Prime Minister] and Sheikh Rehana luckily survived the assassination, as both were in Germany at that time.

Trial into the assassination of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman ended few years back. Few months back, few of the imprisoned killers of the founding father of Bangladesh were hanged. But, till now, a number of self-proclaimed killers of Bangabandhu are absconding in various countries, such as UAE, Pakistan, Libya, United States and Canada. It is even learnt that, few of the absconding killers of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman are shuttling in various countries such as Hong Kong, China, Syria, Lebanon, Iran, Cambodia, Cuba, South American nations and African continent. Bangladeshi government has made numerous appeals to the international in arrest and returning of the self-proclaimed killers of Bangabandhu Sheikh Mujibur Rahman.

Vibgyor Films is already working on the story lineup of the film BANGABANDHU by collecting various facts and information on the life of this legendary Bengali leader in the history of the sub-continent. A small team of the company is dedicatedly collecting information in this regard, which later will be sent to the authorities concerned for approval.

Several internationally acclaimed movie directors, such as Stephen Spielberg, Roman Polanski etc are being contacted for directing this movie while it is assumed that this film will be produced by one of the largest Hollywood film production companies.

Filming of English feature film BANGABANDHU is expected to begin in 2011.

http://www.weeklyblitz.net/1051/hollywood-movie-on-bangabandhu



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[ALOCHONA] Arundhati Roy has stirred up a debate, not about Kashmir, but about herself



Arundhati Roy has stirred up a debate, not about Kashmir, but about herself
 
 
Roy has important things to say, but her tone and bluster ensure the only people listening are those who already agree with her.

Arundhati Roy does what any good polemicist should do. She annoys people and forces them to take sides; she highlights an issue and gets people talking. Too bad that what she gets them talking about has nothing to do with the topic at hand. Inevitably, the debates she stirs tend not to centre around dams, or Maoists, or Kashmir, or even freedom of speech, but around Arundhati Roy.

Speaking at a conference on Sunday, Roy said, "Kashmir has never been an integral part of India. It is a historical fact." The rightwing opposition BJP party, already in a mood over a similar conference last Thursday, decided enough was enough – this was their issue of the week, never mind that she has expressed similar sentiments before.

The government of India, with its usual lack of backbone, explored the possibility of arresting Roy for the laughably archaic crime of sedition. On Monday, the Hindustan Times reported she "may be booked for sedition". On Tuesday, the Guardian decided she "faces arrest over Kashmir remark". By Wednesday, the Los Angeles Times was convinced that "the Indian government took steps to authorise the arrest". Come Thursday, and editorials and blogs appeared praising Roy. Somewhere amid the ruckus, Kashmir was forgotten.

There are many things that are wrong with India. Its foreign policy is wishy-washy, its manner of handling internal security threats is dubious, the way India's powerless are treated by the state is despicable, and Kashmir – that great mix of the three – is an all-round disaster. All of these are worthy of essays, of debate, of balanced analysis and – as important – of partisan rants. There are plenty of rabid righties that need to be balanced by rabid lefties.

In an India obsessed with shiny new shopping malls and expressways and the launch of the latest international luxury brand, in rapidly morphing cities where slum-dwellers are shunted out to the suburbs and even the raincoats on a policeman's back are sponsored, there is a desperate need for polemicists to remind the smug middle class about the 800 million-odd who don't get to partake in what the tourism department calls Incredible India. Palagummi Sainath, the author of Everybody Loves a Good Drought, did it with elegance. Arundhati Roy does it with infinite righteousness.

Roy wrote a paean earlier this year to the cause of the Maoists – a group dedicated to the violent overthrow of the state and responsible for beheading policemen, murdering civilians and killing dozens of soldiers – while skewering the state for waging war on the poor. In her most recent essay before the Kashmir kerfuffle, Roy told readers of one of India's best-selling news weeklies that the government is a farce, the media is a shambles, the military is not to be trusted, the mainstream communist parties are a joke, and India's democracy is only nominal.

Who would want to live in Arundhati Roy's India? Who would even want to read about Arundhati Roy's India? The government of India has many faults, but even Roy has to admit that living in this country isn't entirely intolerable. Confronted with the relentlessly bleak picture she paints, one in which the only good guys are murderers and mercenaries, who can blame middle India for retreating into their iPods and tabloid newspapers?

Roy has important things to say, but her tone and bluster ensure the only people listening are those who already agree with her. She is preaching to the converted. To the left-leaning publications of the west, she is an articulate, intelligent voice explaining the problems with 21st-century India. For the university lefties in India, she confirms their worst fears of a nation falling apart. But to any intelligent readers who may be sitting on the fence or for anyone from middle-class India taking their first tentative steps towards greater political involvement, her polemic serves to terrify and alienate.

As Salil Tripathi writes over at the Index on Censorship blog, "Initially her dissent was seen as admirable, then as a novelty, and now her view is largely marginalised." This week's shenanigans prove that debate about Arundhati Roy is, as ever, thriving. But her writing is rapidly becoming irrelevant in Indian public discourse.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/2010/oct/31/arundhati-roy-kashmir-controversy



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RE: [ALOCHONA] who runs the country



Move to Free Kalyanpur Canal

Drive abandoned as MP weighs in










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[ALOCHONA] Dr Miznur Rahman Shelley on performance of the govt



Dr Miznur Rahman Shelley on performance of the govt
 
 
 
 
 


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[ALOCHONA] Get Tough on Pakistan



Get Tough on Pakistan



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[ALOCHONA] Can Pakistan Produce One Arundhati Roy To Speak Truth?



Can Pakistan Produce One Arundhati Roy To Speak Truth?

By Dr Shabir Choudhry

Arundhati Roy, a famous Indian writer and human rights activist has, once again, made headlines and won minds and hearts of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. She said what she believed – Kashmir is not legally part of India. Kashmir is not part of Pakistan either, although both countries control State of Jammu and Kashmir and have no desire to relinquish their control over these areas.

There is demand in some parts of India that Arundhati Roy should be charged for 'sedition'. But there are many rational people who support her. Alok Tiwari, a prominent Indian journalist wrote in her defence that what she said was 'definitely against the government line on Kashmir. It was also against the popular opinion. Mercifully, there is no law that obligates us to toe the government or popular line. Going against it is dissent, not sedition; and democracies thrive on dissent. They do not shun it.'

India claims to be the biggest democracy on earth, and that democracy is alive and kicking, at least, in India, if not in Jammu and Kashmir. Demand of a genuine democracy is that people must be allowed to express their views without fear or intimidation; and Arundhati Roy is an Indian citizen, and at least, she should be entitled to enjoy fruits of democracy. Alok Tiwari further writes:

'Freedom in a society is tested by its tolerance of what most of its members consider offensive. Freedom to say goody-goody thing is actually no freedom. If we assert before the world that Kashmiris in India are living in freedom, it means even those Kashmiris who would rather not be part of India. They have as much right to air their opinion as the rest of us have to assert Kashmir is an integral part of India. If we find Geelani's ideas offensive then let us come up with better ideas to counter them.'

It is best for government of India to resolve the Kashmir dispute rather than charge all those who express their disagreement on Kashmir policy of government of India. The Kashmir dispute is real. It will not go away by closing eyes; or by using force.

In Kashmir there is a strong resentment against what Indian government do there; and that anger and sense of alienation will not go away by continuation of the present policies. The government of India has to come out with a new policy and new approach and satisfy demands of the people, as policy of gun and bullet cannot win minds and hearts of the people.

Arundhati Roy is brave and honest in her assertions on Kashmir. She had courage to say that India's claim on Kashmir is not correct; and is against popular will of the people of Kashmir. She said all that even though Jammu and Kashmir 'provisionally' acceded to India; and India's claim on Kashmir rests on that 'accession'.

That 'provisional accession' had to be ratified by the people of Jammu and Kashmir; and due to Pakistan's refusal to withdraw troops from Kashmiri territory, as demanded by the UN Resolutions, conditions for a plebiscite could not be created to hold a referendum to test will of the people, hence the present forced division and suffering of the people on both sides of the LOC.

Despite India's claim on Kashmir and its claim to democratic ideals, people like Arundhati Roy speak against India's Kashmir policy. They tell government of India that hearts and minds of people could not be won with use of force. They tell the government that you cannot make people Indian by pulling their finger nails.

On the other hand Pakistan also occupies two parts of State of Jammu and Kashmir, namely Azad Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan, from which Pakistan generously gave away around 2200 sq miles to China in 1963 to improve bilateral relations.

Pakistan has military strength to control the Kashmiri territory under its occupation, but has no legal cover to justify this occupation. It has no legal mandate to be in control of the Kashmiri territory, but still has managed to divert attention away from areas under its control and call them 'azad' meaning free; and many Kashmiri collaborators happily advance the cause of Pakistan.

Many in Pakistan, especially writers and scholars know shallowness of Pakistan's stand on Kashmir. They also know that people of so called Azad Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan are not happy with what Pakistan and its secret agencies do to the people of these areas; and yet they decide to remain quiet. Their conscience does not trouble them, and they follow the government policy on issue of Kashmir. They happily promote government's version on Kashmir, knowing well that it is based on lies.

They know, as it has been confirmed by many impartial surveys that people of Jammu and Kashmir DONOT want to join Pakistan; and yet they broadcast lies that people of Jammu and Kashmir are desperate to join Pakistan. They are reluctant to speak about plight and exploitation of the people living under Pakistani occupation; and will only focus on events taking place on other side of the LOC.

Can Pakistani society produce one prominent writer, scholar and human rights champion who has guts to challenge Pakistan's Kashmir policy; and tell the world that Pakistan's control of Kashmiri territory is not legal? Someone who could tell the world people of Jammu and Kashmir State living on this side of the LOC are also deprived of their fundamental human rights. Or is this too much to ask, and Pakistani writers, intellectuals and scholars will continue to follow the out of date policy of Islamabad?

Writer is Head Diplomatic Committee of Kashmir National Party, political analyst and author of many books and booklets. Also he is Director Institute of Kashmir Affairs.Email:drshabirchoudhry@gmail.com He blogs at www.drshabirchoudhry.blogspot.com




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