ISLAMABAD, (APP): The speakers at a seminar organized by Islamabad Policy Research Institute (IPRI) on Tuesday eulogized the struggle of Kashmiris and highlighted the mechanisms needed in the digital age to reach out to the world.
With Member of British Parliament Naz Shah as guest speaker at the lecture on ‘Fighting the Kashmir Cause: A StratComm Response’ along with Parliamentary Secretary for Law and Justice Maleeka Bokhari, the event focused on the Kashmir issue to be highlighted at the international level through effective media campaigns and lobbying.
She said the need of the hour was to take the Kashmir issue to the center stage and vowed to do her bit in this regard as a legislator in the House of Commons.
The MP from Bradford West, who has walked the extra few miles to make an impact on issues concerning minorities and women in Britain, said that abrogation of Article 370 and 35-A was not just a law change, but had an impact on a generation struggling for its legitimate rights.
She regretted that even today, many in the world did not know the basics of the Kashmiri struggle, and said that until and unless the social media and other forums were activated on the pattern of coverage of the Gaza onslaught, nothing would change for good.
“We need to project the issue in an objective manner, and a strategic shift is needed in explaining the Kashmir cause,” the MP stressed.
Kashmir as the most militarized zone in the world with a genocide taking place in it is unaddressed, she regretted.
Underscoring the need for a new media strategy, as well as lobbying in real-time, Naz Shah observed that the initiative has to come from the grassroots level.
Maleeka Bokhari assured the audience that the government of Pakistan will “use all lawful resources” to project the cause of Kashmir, and referred to the 131-page dossier that Islamabad had brought to the fore on Kashmir, which documents 96,000 extrajudicial killings, 11,200 rapes, 108,000 children orphaned and last but not least 20,000 widows.
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She said rape was being used in Kashmir by the Indian security forces as a punishment tool, and a generation had been maimed.
Executive Director IPRI Dr. Hussain Nadim and Acting President IPRI Brig (retd) Raashid Wali Janjua in their keynote addresses pointed out the efforts that IPRI as a think tank has done to strategize the Kashmir cause in the intellectual and social media realms.
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Dr. Hussain observed that a proper and more resolute strategy in communications was needed to make the world know the cause of Kashmir in its proper and scientific data-centric perspective.
Brig Wali said the real story of Kashmir was yet to be told and noted that a renewed effort was needed to rediscover the struggle from a human perspective.
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