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U.N. resolutions on Kashmir no more practicable: JKLF

By B. Muralidhar Reddy

ISLAMABAD June 14. The Pakistan chapter of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front has declared that U.N. resolutions on Kashmir were no more `practicable' and launched what it termed as the ``JKLF road map for Peace and Prosperity in South Asia''.

The `road map' proposes re-unification of the divided State in five phases under supervision of an International Kashmir Committee (IKC) and complete independence while having friendly relations with both India and Pakistan.

Launching the `map' on Friday, the JKLF chief, Amanullah Khan, said that 15 years later there could be a free and fair referendum in which Kashmiris would decide, as a final settlement of the issue, whether to continue as a free nation or become part of India or of Pakistan. This solution would ensure a peaceful and prosperous future for the entire South Asia.

Mr. Khan said the stand of both Pakistan and India on Kashmir was flawed. They had made Kashmir a matter of `national ego'.

Any solution of the issue not based on the Kashmiris' freely-expressed will and aspirations would not last long, he said and added that any division of Kashmir on religious, ethnic or regional basis would result in mass massacres and mass migrations.

He said the `road map' had five phases. The first comprised the appointment of an International Kashmir Committee (IKC) by the U.N. Secretary-General and comprising one nominee each of the P-5 countries, the NAM, the EU, the OIC, Germany, Japan and the JKLF. The Committee would then chalk out a detailed programme in the light of the `road map' and discuss it with India and Pakistan and Kashmiri political parties and persuade them to accept the plan and to cooperate in its implementation.

The second phase will be to withdraw Indian and Pakistani armed forces as well as non-Kashmiri civilians (armed or unarmed) from Kashmir. The third would be the disarming of the Kashmiri anti- and pro-India armed people and repatriation of Kashmiris displaced after 1988. The fourth would be a practical re-unification of the State divided in 1949 due to a ceasefire and creation of the ceasefire line. The fifth and final phase would be a referendum 15 years after the formation of the first elected government under the U.N. auspices. The popular verdict would be accepted by all concerned as final settlement of the Kashmir issue and implemented.

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