Ahead of Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif's address at the UN General Assembly, Pakistan adviser on national security and foreign affairs Sartaj Aziz raked up the Kashmir issue while participating in a sideline meeting of the OIC Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir at the UN headquarters in New York.
A Daily Times report said: "The adviser said that the fundamental right to self-determination was denied to Kashmiri people despite passing of more than six decades. During this period, the Indian armed forces had unleashed the worst form of torture and oppression, but the valiant people of the disputed state had neither abandoned hope nor given up their legitimate struggle for the self-determination."
Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif. Reuters
Pakistan is seeking to attract as much attention it can on a global platform and trying to play to the gallery at home.
"Nawaz Sharif's initial desire not to take up the Kashmir factor has changed. The meeting with the Hurriyat leaders ahead of the foreign secretary level talks by the Pakistani high commissioner in New Delhi was a clear indication. The Pakistani high commissioner clearly failed to read the mood in New Delhi. There is no doubt that Sharif has changed his course to remain politically significant at home," said Maroof Raza, consultant cum strategic affairs expert for Times Now during a panel discussion on the channel.
BJP leader Mahesh Jethmalani felt that Pakistani diplomats are probably themselves not sure if this was the right time and forum to raise the issue but possible pressure from the Pakistani Army made them do it.
"Nawaz Sharif is only serving his domestic constituency by allowing to raise the Kashmir issue in New York. It is quite clear that Pakistanis do not want to go forward as they ruined the talks by meeting the separatists. How will Pakistan react if the Indian establishment goes and meet the Balochis?" Jethmalani said.
Despite Pakistan's attempts to bring Kashmir issue to the prominence globally it is quite likely that the world might choose to look the other way as there are even more pressing issues to deal with.
"The international community is not going to involve itself in this issue by going into blame games. They have too much on their plate. Except for emergencies there is highly unlikely that US would bother to think of anything else given its own presidential polls are nearing. Both India and Pakistan owe it to themselves to resolve their differences. Both the countries have strong leaders and they need to deliver. The leaders should not get involve in a war of words. They should rather take care of their economy and increase trade ties," said political and strategic analyst Shuja Nawaz.
The US is already involved in military operations against the Islamic State militants. US President Barack Obama had also reiterated America's resolve to wipe out the Islamic State during his UN General Assembly address on Wednesday.
"US just declared war against the Islamic State. The whole attention will be diverted to that war and it is obvious that Pakistan won't get enough attention as it seeks. Islamic State is considered to be an immediate threat to US In that context, it is unlikely that Kashmir will get any international attention," said senior program associate for South and Southeast Asia at the Woodrow Wilson Center, Michael Kugelman.
He observed that Kashmir will become a burning issue once the US troops leave Afghanistan in 2015.
"Kashmir is going to be a big flash point once US troops leave Afghanistan. Probably then the Lashkar-e-Taiba and the rest of terrorist organisations will focus their attention to India. It is possible that Nawaz Sharif has been forced to take out the Kashmir card as he has been really cut down to size at home," Kugelman said.
The viewpoint of Pakistan has always been that India always wants to avoid discussing Kashmir and the two nations cannot keep the topic at bay for eternity. Retired Major General Rashid Qureshi, who took part in the debate, ironically chose to squarely blame India for the cancellation of the talks.
"There is no doubt in anyone's mind that people of both the countries want to co-exist peacefully. We tried to talk but that did not happen because of India. We do not want war. India knows that if Kashmir is discussed on an international forum it will lose. India and Pakistan needs to squarely discuss these issues. India can't be an ostrich and bury its head in the sand and say problem doesn't exist," said Major General Qureshi.
But the former Pakistani Army major general sought to bypass the crux of the problem when he said, "We don't see (Kashmiri) separatists as separatists."
For India, this denial on part of Pakistan is what continues to be a problem.
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