By : Fatima Iftikhar (Multan)
I am a woman, a sister, a mother, a wife, a daughter– born and raised in immense patriotism, significant democracy and rightful liberty. I am here to vocalize my sentiments freely and without reserve.
I am a woman and they tell us we are weak, unable to carry the burden of undoubtable rivalry. They tell us we are weak since we do not carry arms but when shall we be stronger? I want to know, I am willing to know the whole truth, to know the worst and to provide for it. I am willing to speak of truth irrespective of the cost- for truth does cost life every time. So this might be my last as I speak of truth. So let it be. I speak of truth for this truth is as beautiful as Kashmir, as sad as Iraq, as exhausted as Syria, as destroyed as Yemen, as wounded as Libya and as forgotten as Palestine. 21st century and fourth Industrial Revolution, yet as a Kashmiri woman I march for liberation standing amid ironic democracy. Established on honesty and fair play we are unable to comprehend the power we are blessed with.
“It is better to die fighting for freedom than to be a prisoner for all the days of your life.”
- Bob Marley
Pakistan not only means freedom and independence but the Muslim Ideology which has to be preserved. Jinnah said: “Democracy is in the blood of the Muslims, who look upon complete equality of mankind, and believe in fraternity, equality and liberty. Our leader Jinnah said,
“You are free, you are free to practice your religion in this state of Pakistan. You may belong to any religion or caste or creed that has nothing to do with business of the state.”
- Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah
The concept of liberty can quiet easily be explained by an incident which took place right after- Yaum-e-Takbeer, when a young Palestinian boy, held a stone in his hand, stood in front of the Israeli army and yelled with some heart-rending words, “Don’t look at the stone in my hand, look at the bomb in Pakistan, we are coming after you.” These words sum up the idea and the importance of liberty which we are enjoying in our beloved homeland.
1947 till date, Pakistan has never settled with India over Kashmir issue. Kashmir is a matter of dignity and harmony for Pakistan and thus it remains in continous struggle to free it from a ‘occupied status.’ Pakistan has been into war with India since inception over Kashmir and has fought three major wars.
Pakistan under the leadership of Imran Khan has precluded the chance of normalizing relations with India, saying such a move would deceive the Kashmiris and that we can not waste their struggles.
In a live meeting with people in general on Sunday, Khan attested that restoring connection with its eastern neighbor would be “disregarding the entirety of their battle [Kashmiris] and the in excess of 100,000 Kashmiris martyred”. (aljazeeranews.com)
“I attempted, since the very first moment subsequent to coming into power, that we have relations with India and the issue of Kashmir is settled through exchange,” he said, adding that if Pakistan standardized relations with India now, it “will do a significant treachery to individuals of Kashmir”. (aljazeeranews.com)
Prime Minister Imran Khan made his stance clear over the issue of Kashmir quoting:
“There is no question that our exchange will work on yet the entirety of their blood will be squandered, so this can’t occur. This can’t occur that our exchange improves at [the cost of] their blood,” he said. (aljazeeranews.com) However Pakistan has been long discussing on the Kashmir issue in a free and reasonable way ‘whenever and anyplace’ except if there is the harmonization of position, another round of talks would not yield everything except would prompt the emphasis of the old stands. The underlining truth is, Pakistan would keep on pursuing its international strategy through low-power struggle as long as it can manage the cost of it with a military ruled dynamic assembly . The lone way Pakistan can manage out of the circumstance of its own creation of a layout of Kashmir Policy to permit the vote based interaction in Kashmir to flourish. Pakistan awaits peace talks to resolve the issue to achieve it’s objective.
