Without any reservation, it can be said that the person who becomes instrumental in resolving the Kashmir dispute – the bone of contention between two very potentially dangerous countries – deserves not only the Nobel Peace Prize but also a special place in history – Press Network of Pakistan

 

President Trump Can Help Resolve Kashmir Dispute

  By Dr Ghulam Nabi Fai
Chairman
World Forum for Peace & Justice
Washington, DC

The nation of Kashmir expresses its deepest gratitude at the forthright and principled stand taken by President Donald J. Trump for offering his office to settle the 78-year-old dispute between India and Pakistan. In a post on Truth Social, President Trump said “I am very proud of the strong and unwaveringly powerful leadership of India and Pakistan for having the strength, wisdom, and fortitude to fully know and understand that it was time to stop the current aggression that could have lead to the death and destruction of so many, and so much. Millions of good and innocent people could have died! Your legacy is greatly enhanced by your brave actions. I am proud that the USA was able to help you arrive at this historic and heroic decision. While not even discussed, I am going to increase trade, substantially, with both of these great nations. Additionally, I will work with you both to see if, after a “thousand years,” a solution can be arrived at concerning Kashmir. God Bless the leadership of India and Pakistan on a job well done!!!” 

It’s very clear that Kashmir needs a strong and determined will and the genius of an imagination that has the negotiating skills and knows how to bring people together. We believe that there cannot be a better person than President Trump himself to mediate or facilitate between the parties concerned. Facilitation or mediation by President Trump would be free from the jealousies and the ambitions that characterize individual initiative. President Trump will have to remain under no obligation

to please any particular power or particular set of powers or groups.

Without reservation, it can be said that the person who becomes instrumental in resolving the Kashmir dispute – the bone of contention between two very potentially dangerous countries – deserves not only the Nobel Peace Prize but also a special place in history. The resolution of the dispute will bring unparalleled honor to the one who helps to achieve it. That honor could be yours, Mr President. Your leadership in helping to settle the Kashmir dispute should not be seen to favor India or Pakistan but to advance the cause of freedom, democracy and human rights in the region of South Asia.
It is worth mentioning here that when the Kashmir dispute erupted in 1947-1948, the United States championed the stand that the future status of Kashmir must be ascertained in accordance with the wishes and aspirations of the people of the territory. The United States was the principal sponsor of the resolution, which was adopted by the Security Council on April 21, 1948, and which was based on that unchallenged principle. The basic formula for settlement was incorporated in the resolutions of the UN Commission for India and Pakistan (UNCIP) adopted on August 13, 1948, and January 5, 1949.

These were not resolutions in the routine sense of the term. Their provisions were negotiated in detail by the UNCIP with India and Pakistan, and it was only after the consent of both Governments was explicitly obtained that they were endorsed by the Security Council. They thus constitute a binding and solemn international agreement about the settlement of the Kashmir dispute.

We believe, Mr President that it is not the inherent difficulties of a solution, but the lack of will to implement a solution, that has caused the prolonged deadlock over the Kashmir dispute. The deadlock has meant indescribable agony for the people of Kashmir and incalculable loss for both India and Pakistan.

We are fully aware that the settlement of the Kashmir dispute cannot be achieved in one move. Like all qualified observers, we visualize successive steps or intermediate solutions in the process. It is one thing, however, to think of a settlement over a relatively extended period of time. It is atrociously different to postpone the beginning of the process on that account.
What is desperately needed is an affirmation by Prime Minister of India, Narendra Modi and Prime Minister of Pakistan, Shehbaz Sharif, of the necessity of taking new measures to affect the settlement of the dispute within a reasonable timeframe. To that end, India and Pakistan must together prepare a plan for the demilitarization of the State with safeguards for security worked out together.

We understand that ultimately the Kashmir issue will only be resolved across the table through tripartite negotiations between India, Pakistan and the Kashmiri leadership. And if that is true, then why wait? Any delay will cause more death and destruction in the region.

The demand of the people of Kashmir that the Kashmiri leadership should be included in the talks is not based on passion alone but on important principles long acknowledged by the international community, including the United States.

Mr President, peace in the region would benefit not only those who are directly impacted by this conflict but India as well, whose economy is seriously drained by the maintenance of such a massive number of troops in Kashmir, and the diversion it creates from other challenges it faces in raising the living standards of its population. Sounder minds must prevail. More rational methods of dealing with differences must be sought. Repeating the same mistakes while expecting different results has long ago been found to be the path of failure. Seventy-eight years should demonstrate the need for a change in policy, a policy that accepts the need for coming together in a process that accepts the right of all people to determine their own destiny.

It is high time, Mr President, that we try to make a constructive departure. The best point for doing so is to restore the focus where it originally belonged and where it still rests logically, viz., the rights and interests of the people of Kashmir itself.

We consider it extremely unlikely that, entirely on their own, India and Pakistan will embark upon a meaningful peace process. Even if they did, there would be a risk of the rights and interests of the people of Kashmir being bypassed. The case for an earnest mediatory initiative by President Donald J. Trump is thus indubitable.

(The writer is also the Secretary General, Washington-based World Kashmir Awareness Forum. - gnfai2003@yahoo.com )