Pakistan came in for flak at the United Nations Commission on Human Rights from Kashmiri groups in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), which alleged trampling of fundamental rights of people in Gilgit and Baltistan and PoK.
"Fundamental rights such as freedom of movement, freedom of expression, freedom of assembly and freedom of association are often infringed. There is a limited tolerance of divergent views, which affects the full exercise of political rights," Shaukat Ali Kashmiri, son of Maqbool Bhat, founder of JKLF, said in his speech.
Shaukat, who was speaking on behalf of European Union of Public Relations, pointed to liberal and open democratic institutions in Jammu and Kashmir to throw in sharp contrast the situation in PoK.
He said there were more serious rights violations in PoK and Gilgit and Baltistan. "Such violations are less known to the world because of the veil of secrecy thrown over these areas by the Pakistani military intelligence establishment under the pretext of security."
Dismissing the claims of Pakistan as a champion of the Kashmir cause, he said it was nothing "but a hollow and self-serving slogan".
Speaking during an intervention, Arshad Mehmood Khan of World Peace Council criticised Pakistan's Law and Justice Minister Wasi Zafar's statement of right to self determination for the people of Jammu and Kashmir and said "it would be no exaggeration to assert that PoK and Gilgit and Baltistan have been reduced to a graveyard of all noble human rights in the universal declaration of human rights".
Courtesy: Hindustan Times
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