Businessmen pledge all-out support to Kashmiris

The business community on Kashmir Solidarity Day strongly condemned the continuous violation of human rights in Indian-Held Kashmir and urged the government to forcefully raise the issue at every international forum.

They said that Pakistan business community will continue to extend its moral support for realisation of the right to self-determination of the people of Jammu and Kashmir. United Business Group chairman Iftikhar Ali Malik said that international community should not play the role of silent spectator on the issue as violation of human rights in Kashmir by India is creating unrest in the region.

He recalled that the purpose of Feb 5 is to demonstrate to our Kashmiri brothers and sisters and the world at large that we have not forgotten the long-pending dispute of Jammu and Kashmir, and the struggle of the people of Indian-occupied Kashmir against woeful Indian occupation.

He said that Indian forces are adding new chapters of brutality that is not tolerable at all, while the Kashmir issue should be resolved according to the wishes of the Kashmiri people. He said India is deliberately maligning SAARC for its own vested interests and targeting Pakistan to disrupt trade and peace process in the region. He said that Pakistan aimed to convince the SAARC member states that India wanted to divide the region by targeting the regional inter-governmental organisation.

He said India and Pakistan should try to resolve their differences and make the quest for normalisation and peace the noblest of goals in the region, taking a cue from the recent thaw in the relations between North and South Korea and America and North Korea.

The veteran trade leader and Guard Group chairman said Indian businessmen should influence their government and advice the concerned authorities on improving trade relations. While expressing concerns over the role of international community, he said that United Nations should take notice of the Indian aggression and intervene in the matter as any irresponsibility by the Indian side could give birth to a large scale human tragedy.

Iftikhar Malik, who is also the former FPCCI chairman and LCCI president, made it clear that that India was impeding the peace process as Islamabad always remained committed to the regional body. SAARC promotes development of economic and regional integration. If the members help each other economically, poverty and illiteracy can be reduced, he added. He said the scope of regional cooperation in the SAARC had proliferated, and it had started to engage political, economic, social, cultural and other aspects in its dialogue.