By Khizar Hayat Abbasi

Muzaffarabad: Pakistan-administered Kashmir (PaK) Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider Khan called upon the democratic institutions and human rights bodies of United Kingdom to play their proactive role for ending the violations of human rights in Kashmir.

He was addressing as chief guest at a symposium on Kashmir held under the aegis of Jammu and Kashmir Right to Self Determination Movement at House of Commons in London.

“Being one of the central parties to the dispute back in 1947, the British government is morally bound to resolve the Kashmir dispute,” he remarked, adding that under the spirit of Partition Plan, Jammu and Kashmir being Muslim majority state should have been part of Pakistan.

“But unfortunately India trampled the rules of the game and occupied the Muslim majority state with military might,” he added.

Haider said that “genocide of Kashmiris was aimed to change the demography of the state by turning the Muslim-majority Kashmir into a Muslim-minority”.

Terming British Parliament the mother of democratic institutions all over the world, Haider urged the members of the British parliament to support legitimate struggle of Kashmiri people for their democratic right of self-determination.

Haider also urged the parliamentarians to initiate a debate on Kashmir in the parliament as peaceful settlement of Kashmir issue is key to lasting peace in South Asia.

Kashmiris, he said, are striving for their right to decide their future which was guaranteed to them by the global community under the UN Security Council’s resolutions.

Referring to persistent firing from across the Line of Control (LoC), Haider said that “Indian army is not only violating cease-fire agreement but also breaches international laws by targeting hospitals, ambulances and school going children”.

Recently, he said, a school van carrying female students was targeted by Indian forces at the LoC.