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A summary of the appeal is given below.
The role of the UN Human Rights Council is to evolve a mechanism to stop the human rights violations of a voiceless, marginalised people from underdeveloped regions and persuade the state to improve its human rights record, provide democracy, development and human dignity as defined by the world community.
As people from Kashmir our concerns, demands and views are not different than those of the rest of the world. I am referring to the terrorism, extremism and fundamentalism emanating from Pakistan and posing serious threat to the regional and global order. We have been expressing our serious concerns at UN human rights forum, briefings and conferences in the European Parliament that military in Pakistan is using extremists and fundamentalists as a foreign policy tool. Unless the Pakistan military is stopped from nurturing, breeding and infiltrating extremists across the borders, attempts to build peace whether in Afghanistan or with India will fail.
However, the world community paid little attention to our concerns and was busy in appeasing Pakistani military regime by filling their coffers so that they may genuinely extend cooperation to root out terrorism. But now, after seven years of war against terrorism and pouring billions of dollars into Pakistan, the world has hopefully realized that it failed to persuade military and ISI in Pakistan to change their course. After seven years of efforts, Taliban are taking over Pakistan bit by bit. This is the vision and mechanism of Pakistan military and ISI: to ensure that the safe havens of Taliban are not disturbed by the newly elected ANP government in NWFP, which subscribes to secular views and may not be at ease with a military agenda.
The Pakistan military establishment strongly believes that stable Afghanistan means unstable Pakistan, and unstable Afghanistan means stable Pakistan. The military is therefore embarked upon the policy of destabilising Afghanistan.
The extremists and terrorists that are viewed by the West and others as threat to regional security and stability are deemed as strategic ally and asset by the military and intelligence agencies of Pakistan. This perceptional gap that persist between both West and the Pakistan military cannot be filled by pouring money and opening up wallets. The strategy of persuading through pouring money and aid has further convinced them that their strategy of extremism is paying rewards and they continue to reap further economic and political concessions from the West and India.
The policy of proliferation of extremism and nuclear technology are two pronged approach of Pakistan military to blackmail the West. The release of AQ Khan and the Lal Mosque Imam are steps towards encouraging hawkish forces and putting pressure on the West.
The world can see how the Taliban government has abused women in Afghanistan in the past, and recently in Pakistan's Swat where a young woman was publically flogged.
Our region of Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan under Pakistan control has become a launching pad of extremists and militants against the Indian administered Kashmir.
While our region suffers from poverty, illiteracy, high child mortality, unemployment, malnourishment and lack of health and education facilities, it continues to be used against Indian administered Kashmir as militants' base camps. This affects the development and safety of the local population. The Mumbai terrorist attack was a clear conspiracy against the ongoing peace process, which the new civilian Pakistani government was eager to push forward. But ISI and military used it to sabotage the improving India-Pakistan relations.
We are a marginalized people of Gilgit Baltistan, who have been victimized since 1949. Our natural resources have been badly plundered since this area was illegally occupied by Pakistan. About two million people here are deprived and living under fear and harassment by Pakistani secret agencies.
I would like to persuade European politicians to take up the following points before the Pakistani Government to guarantee the safety of the local people in Pakistani Administered Kashmir and in Gilgit Baltistan and to empower them with basic necessities.
1. A fact-finding mission should be established to oversee social-economical, constitutional, cultural, educational, developmental situation in both regions of Pakistani Administered Kashmir (the so-called Azad Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan).
2. The huge money that was given to rebuild after the 2005 earthquake is being misused and even after three years nothing has been done in this regard. Thousands of people are looking for help and are compelled to live in temporary shelters. The millions of Euros that the European Union had given to rehabilitate people and develop infrastructure in the region have gone into the pockets of the ERRA (Earthquake Relief and Rehabilitation Authority). We fear that the money is being used to strengthen terrorist organisations in the region while the affected people are left out.
3. We feel that in order to establish and strengthen democracy and the rule of law, an independent judiciary is inevitable and that favoritism in state institutions must be discouraged by the world community. The local authorities in Muzaffarabad have adopted the same political culture in Pakistani Administered Kashmir. While the senior most judge of Supreme Court, Justice Manzoor Gilani, has been superseded, a junior judge has been appointed as chief justice. In AJK High Court, Justice Sardar Nawaz Khan has been working as Adhoc Chief Justice for the last three years but the government is not appointing him as permanent chief justice. Undemocratic forces do not want an independent judiciary, they always relay on subservient judiciary. The Pakistani Government should be pressurized for an independent judiciary. The system of personal liking and disliking should be abolished and replaced by a system of merit; transparency and accountability should prevail in all state institutions.
4. The terrorist infrastructure in the region is still intact and a most wanted culprit of Mumbai terror attacks was arrested from Muzaffarabad. Despite ban imposed on such terrorist organisations, these have got the blessings of Pakistani state institutions and security establishment. Terrorist infrastructure must be dismantled for real and not just for the purpose of announcement on TV and newspapers.
5. We strongly urge and request the world community to ask the Government of Pakistan to guarantee freedom of speech, assembly and freedom of thoughts and that all political parties should be allowed to take part in elections and in the democratic process.
6. That the constitutional restraints imposed on democratic, pro-people and pro-independence political parties of Pakistani administered Kashmir must end now.
7. Pakistan and local authorities in Muzaffarabad should collect a data of educated unemployed youth in the region and they should be provided with a respectable livelihood.
8. The Government of Pakistan must see to it that industries are established in both regions, Azad Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan, in order to overcome unemployment.
9. That the hate literature must be banned throughout the country and such literature should be banned from schools as well.
10. If the military is claiming that it is prepared to counter any escalation of terrorism, why is it unable to stop the broadcasting of illegal FM radio stations in Federally Administered Tribal Areas? In our views this is not possible without the blessings of the military and secret agencies. This is being done so as to get more funds from the western countries and the United States in the name of war on terror.
11. We strongly urge the world community to ask Pakistan to take serious steps against those who are involved in killings of political leaders and civil society activists in Gilgit Baltistan. We also urge that the construction of Basha dam in the region must be halted and plundering or natural resources must be stopped and these areas should be handed over and reunited with the rest of Jammu and Kashmir.
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