Several prominent Saudis joined the Pakistani community late Tuesday to show solidarity with the people of India-administered Kashmir at a function held at the Consulate General of Pakistan, Jeddah. More than 500 people attended the Kashmir Solidarity Day event.
Ambassador Ezzat Kamel Mufti, the former special representative of OIC secretary-general on Jammu and Kashmir; Tariq Mishkhas, editor in chief of Urdu News; Dr. Ali Al-Ghamdi; Dr. Abdul Aziz Jiffrey, director-general, Qur’an Academy; Dr. Mahmood Al-Samurai of Madinah University; and several others extended their moral support and offered suggestions to resolve the crisis.
Chief Guest Ezzat Kamel Mufti advocated negotiations to resolve the Kashmir issue. He spoke about his own experience of negotiating with the Indian government.
Mufti said he impressed upon India to start bus services on humanitarian grounds to connect families in the Kashmiri regions separated by India and Pakistan.
The negotiation came to fruition as India launched two bus services. The services, though of symbolic importance, remained a milestone in fostering peaceful relations between the two governments until a final solution is reached on Kashmir.
Mufti, however, advised that instead of just a day’s observance Pakistanis should make efforts to ensure that all the Islamic countries make the Kashmir issue a permanent agenda item at every international meeting.
These Islamic countries, he said, can use their political and economic relationship with India to bring up the Kashmir issue to achieve a solution.
The new consul general of Pakistan in Jeddah, Aftab Ahmad Khokhar, welcomed the suggestions and comments of the guest speakers.
“This moral support will strengthen the just cause of the struggle of Kashmiris,” he said.
Khokhar read messages of Pakistan's President Asif Zardari and Prime Minister Raja Pervez in which they reaffirmed Pakistan’s resolve to stand by its Kashmiri brethren and find a peaceful solution to the longstanding dispute.
Khokhar, who assumed his responsibilities recently as new consul general, is a career diplomat. During his diplomatic assignment as deputy permanent representative/counselor, Permanent Mission of Pakistan to the UN, Geneva, he was dealing with disarmament, environment, human rights, humanitarian, administrative and budgetary issues. He was also member of the Mission Team dealing with humanitarian issues with focus on OCHA-led relief and rehabilitation process in the aftermath of the earthquake in Pakistan.
Earlier, after the Qur’an recitation by Qazi Muhammad Asif, Masud Khan Puri, president of Kashmir Committee Jeddah, began the program by welcoming the guests. He gave a detailed background of the Kashmir problem and mentioned about the pending plebiscite decision enshrined in the UN resolution, which he said India has yet to honor even after the lapse of 60 years
Tariq Mishkhas, editor in chief of Urdu News, commended Pakistan’s stand on Kashmir, and all its efforts to help the people of Kashmir.
If the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) is reaching out to people by establishing schools, orphanages and health centers, it is due to Pakistan’s all out support to the OIC that is making things easier, he said.
As a solution to problem, Mishkhas advocated resolving the matter through negotiations between the two countries.
“Today, it is the art of negotiation that makes things possible,” he said.
The other dignitaries, who spoke on the occasion included Dr. Al-Ghamdi, Dr. Abdul Aziz Jiffrey; Dr. Mahmood Al-Samurai and Mukhtar Kanoo.
