NEWSLINKS US EDITION COLUMNISTS DIARY SPECIALS INTERVIEWS CAPITAL BUZZ REDIFF POLL THE STATES ELECTIONS ARCHIVES US ARCHIVES SEARCH REDIFF
A Kashmir independent of India and Pakistan can only bring disintegration in the two countries, Pakistan-occupied Kashmir's new Prime Minister Sardar Sikander Hayat Khan feels.
And so, he argues, the 'third option' -- that is, a United Nations resolution giving Kashmiris the choice of independence -- should be ruled out.
Hayat, who was elected PM on July 24, was responding to Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf's indication that he might look beyond the 'old' UN resolution, perhaps at a new one that granted a third option to the Kashmiris.
The 'old' UN resolution, dating back to 1948, provides only for Jammu and Kashmir's accession to either India or Pakistan.
"The third option will only strengthen demands in India for separate homelands for Tamils, Sikhs etc," Hayat argues. "Similarly, on our side, there will be trouble in Sindh and Baluchistan, and from the Pathans. Both countries will disintegrate."
"The Partition was between Hindu India and Muslim Pakistan," he said in Islamabad two days before he was elected. "If the 660 independent states [before Partition] were given the option to remain free, there would have been 660-plus new countries now. So there can only be two nations."
"A free Kashmir is our birthright," he said. "My dream is a united Kashmir."
This is the second time Hayat, who belongs to the Muslim Conference, has been elected PM by the 48 members of the PoK legislative assembly. He beat People's Party candidate Barrister Sultan Mahmood Chaudhry.
Among the 19 political parties in PoK, the Muslim Conference emerged the winner with 29 seats and 34 per cent of the total votes in the July 5 election. Then came the People's Party with 17 seats and 26.7 per cent votes, followed by the Jamaat-e-Islami, which managed eight per cent votes but no seats. One seat went to the Muslim League.
The PoK, or Azad (Liberated) Kashmir as Pakistanis call it, became part of Pakistan after the Pathan invasion of 1948. An autonomous region, it functions under a separate constitution. It has, today, 2.1 million voters from among a three million population.
"India has a face-saving option -- implement the UN resolution," Hayat said. "Only plebiscite can bring peace between the two countries."
The new prime minister said he would be glad if India agreed, as a confidence building measure, to open the Line of Control to Kashmiris at selected points. But, he added, entries should be allowed without visas, on the basis of other identity papers.
"It was so till 1956," he said. "A paper signed by the deputy commissioner or collector was enough to go across."
Indian authorities are said to be considering the possibility of implementing such a move in the Uri sector. If that happens, New Delhi may not insist on visas because, as observers point out, that would "concede PoK is a foreign country and not part of India".
Speaking about Pakistan's stand that what is happening in Jammu and Kashmir -- or "Indian-occupied Kashmir", as Hayat would have it -- is an indigenous freedom struggle and not cross-border terrorism, the prime minister said, "Whatever it is, it will end when the issue is resolved."
Hayat, who says he is a "mujahir from IoK", became an MLA for the first time in 1970. He was PoK prime minister between 1985 and 1990, and its president between 1991 and 1996.
He has also been the opposition leader when the PP was in power.
Of the 48 seats in the legislative assembly, 28 are directly elected. Twelve are reserved for migrants -- six each from Jammu and the Kashmir valley -- and the rest nominated.
Complete Coverage of the Indo-Pak Summit
Back to top
Tell us what you think of this report
