Does a Kashmiri child not feel the same pain as any other child? MP Imran Hussain asked this question during a heated debate in the British Parliament. He further said that the time for just talking about Kashmir was over and it was time for action.
The members of the British Parliamentary Group (APPG) on Kashmir were exchanging their views while discussing a motion on human rights in Kashmir.
British parliament member Imran Hussain also questioned the role of the United Nations Security Council in resolving the Kashmir issue. He said that the UK should send a clear message to United Nations to take concrete actions for the solution of the age-old conflict as he mentioned the Kashmiris also have equal rights to live on earth.
Imran Hussain is a Labour MP for Bradford East & Shadow Employment Rights and Protections Minister.
Labour MP Tahir Ali, while speaking to the House of Commons, called for the Indian High Commissioner to the United Kingdom to be barred from the Parliament because of the military occupation of Jammu and Kashmir.
The Minister for Asia in the Foreign, Commonwealth and Development Office (FCDO), Amanda Milling, responded to the debate on Thursday by reiterating the UK government’s unchanged stance on Kashmir as a bilateral issue.
The government takes the situation in Kashmir very seriously but it’s for India and Pakistan to find a lasting political solution, taking into account the wishes of the Kashmiri people.
It’s not for the UK to prescribe a solution or to act as a mediator, said Milling.
Raheel Malik Tweeted that the backbench business debate was put forward by MPs Debbie Abrahams and Yasmin Qureshi.
According to Qureshi “the situation on the ground is deeply troubling” and as the “conflict is a colonial legacy” UK has a responsibility to help resolve it.
The debate, which was scheduled to be held in March 2020 but had to be postponed due to the COVID-19 pandemic lockdown, was opened by Opposition Labour Party MP Debbie Abrahams.
She said that the Pakistani government allowed them unfettered access. We used our meetings to ask pointed questions related to human rights issues highlighted in United Nations reports, said Abrahams.
Kashmiris must be at the heart of a trilateral peacebuilding process, she said, reiterating that Thursday’s debate was not pro or anti any country and only speaking in favour of human rights.
