New Delhi, April 2
Accusing Islamabad of making a U-turn on Kashmir more than a dozen times, the oldest Kashmiri separatist organisation, JKLF, has dismissed claim that Pakistan founder Mohammed Ali Jinnah had ever claimed Kashmir to be an integral part of Pakistan. "I will mention the performance of Pakistan for the resolution of this longstanding issue and will never hesitate to say that neither the direction nor the pace of endeavours that the Pakistani rulers have so far taken are correct," JKLF Chief Amanullah Khan was quoted by Pakistani daily 'The Daily Times'.
Mr Khan was critical of proposals by Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf and said they mainly lead to "division" of Kashmir instead of its "independence".
He said since 1947, Pakistan had taken at least 15 U-turns on its Kashmir policy. The Pakistani rulers would never shy away from compromising on their previous stances whenever they think the situation has changed, he added.
"Besides, I will contest (their) persistent claim that Quaid-e-Azam (Jinnah) had said in one of his speeches that Kashmir was an integral part of Pakistan. No one would find such narrations in any of the speeches the Quaid-e-Azam made till his death," Mr Khan said.
Flaying Musharraf, he said "in 2004, General Musharraf had told us at a reception hosted by Shaikh Rashid that autonomy might be one of the solutions to the Kashmir issue but at the recent Pagwash Conference, he told us that an autonomous Kashmir was not applicable. He is constantly contradicting himself."
—PTI
