New Delhi, March 11
European Parliament will vote on March 21 on a set of 16 compromise amendments on the 27-nation body's draft report on Kashmir which is like a red rag to Pakistan.
If these amendments are approved, the revised draft report will be placed before the plenary committee for further debate. The voting in the plenary will take place towards the end of May.
Indications from EU diplomats are here that the EU appears all set to press for the adoption of its 10-page Kashmir report.
The 16 compromise amendments proposed by rapporteur of the report, Baroness Emma Nicholson, have rattled Pakistan and enraged Islamabad-backed lobby groups.
Barrister Majid Tramboo, executive director, Kashmir Centre EU, found the "compromise amendments as yet another round of Pakistan-bashing."
Nicholson has taken note of the massive Pakistan- backed campaign against her and the report. During February 26 debate on more than 450 amendments proposed by Pakistan-backed Kashmiri groups, Nicholson remarked that the amendment proposals "have come straight from Islamabad".
At a press conference at the Carlton House in Central London on March 5, she said the compromise amendments had been prepared with the help of shadow rapporteurs, representing the various British parties in European Parliament.
Interestingly, a Pakistan High Commission official tried to attend the press conference, but the diplomat was shown the door by the Baroness, saying it was meant only for journalists.
The 16 compromise amendments include the following:
- Disfavouring any plebiscite in the state, arguing that it will be "meaningless" unless Pakistan withdraws all its troops from the parts under it, they correct the demographic changes and ensure return of territory Pakistan ceded to China in 1963. Pakistan wants the reference to China as a party to the Kashmir issue, to be removed from the preamble. This is the key amendment which has irritated Pakistan the most.
They say: "Any plebiscite will be meaningless without a change in policy from Islamabad, which maintains that all of Kashmir is an integral part of Pakistan's territory and without Pakistani troop withdrawals and the return of Punjabi and Pathan settlers from Gilgit and Baltistan as well as Chinese withdrawal from Aksai Chin and the Shaksgam valley,"
- Another compromise amendment drew attention to the fact that "the Republic of India is the world's largest secular democracy and has evolved democratic structures at all levels, whereas the Islamic Republic of Pakistan still lacks full implementation of democracy in AJK (PoK) and has yet to start the process of democracy in Gilgit and
Baltistan."
- An amendment referring to the nuclear weapon policies of India and Pakistan says: "Both countries are nuclear powers outside the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty. While India's nuclear doctrine rests on the principle of no-first use, Pakistan's does not."
- An amendment referring to demographic changes brought about in Pakistan-administered Kashmir notes that over the past 58 years, there have been a large scale population changes in Pakistan-controlled Kashmir (PCK) with people from outside settling in unlike the Indian side where such settlements are prohibited. It mentions that Indian part of J&K has a separate constitution which disallows outsiders from holding any property in the territory.
Nicholsons has pointed out that, "The Constitution of AJK (Azad Jammu and Kashmir or Pakistan-controlled Kashmir) of 1974 would have to be altered if the people there are to be invited for plebiscite. The situation since 1947 has changed. The UN Resolution on J-K stipulated the condition that there should be complete withdrawal of troops from Pakistan from the occupied area and those who settled from outside Kashmir should also withdraw".
