Tariq Azim Khan addressing students at McGill University Montreal

“If plebiscite can be held in Quebec or Scotland to decide their future, why not in Indian held Kashmir”, said High Commissioner, Tariq Azim Khan, while addressing students and academics at McGill University Montreal here today. The High Commissioner gave a detailed background of the Jammu Kashmir dispute and said that India continues to violate UNSC resolutions on Kashmir adopted in 1948 which says that India will maintain bare minimum force to maintain law and order in the occupied territories, whereas Jammu Kashmir has become a place where there is highest concentration of military troops anywhere in the world. He maintained that under the UN Security Council resolutions the people of Jammu Kashmir have right to decide their destiny. However their right is being denied by India and the international community should play its due role to grant them inalienable right to decide for their own future in accordance with UNSC resolutions. He said that even the Indian media has recognized that the indigenous movement for self-determination going on in Jammu and Kashmir is now in the hands of local Kashmiri youth and it will not be possible for occupational forces to deny them their rights. He said that the international community should take notice of the situation as any conflict between two nuclear armed nations could be catastrophe for the regional peace. In reply to a question the High Commissioner said that peaceful, strong and stable Afghanistan is in the interest of Pakistan and that Pakistan is a victim of terrorism itself by losing 80,000 of its civilian and over 7000 of its armed personnel in fighting terrorism. Pakistan has suffered over US $ 100 billions in economic losses due to terrorism, he said. He said that other countries in the region must refrain from fomenting their evil designs by supporting terrorism in order to dislodge recent economic developments in Pakistan. The recent acts of terrorism in Pakistan have the fingerprints of support of foreign agencies. Earlier Muhammad Aamer, Consul General of Pakistan, Montreal gave a detailed presentation to the university students on CPEC: Opportunities and Challenges for Pakistan. He said that CPEC is not the name of a single route or alignment, rather it is a comprehensive package of co-operative initiatives and projects encompassing: regional connectivity; information network infrastructure; energy co- operation, industries and industrial parks; agricultural development and poverty alleviation, tourism, financial co-operation. He added that CPEC is a game changer project which will transform the fate of Pakistan and will help Pakistan modernize with the infusion of billions of dollars of Foreign Direct Investment and it will result in thousands of new ventures and millions of jobs in every part of Pakistan.