PoK is in chains, other areas black holes: EU expert

Slamming Islamabad’s human rights violations in PoK, European Parliament’s rapporteur Baroness Emma Nicholson said PoK was actually...

Slamming Islamabad’s human rights violations in PoK, European Parliament’s rapporteur Baroness Emma Nicholson said PoK was actually in “chains” and Gilgit and Baltistan were actually “black holes” in today’s world.

“Very few people have seen the interim constitution of PoK, which clearly shows that it is not free at all. It is in chains,” Nicholson, whose report Kashmir: Present situation and Future Prospects was passed by European Parliament with an overwhelming majority recently, said.

She said the worst sufferers were the poor people of Gilgit and Baltistan and equated the situation of that region similar to a “black hole”.

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She said her report on Kashmir, which was not well received by the officials in Pakistan, had been welcomed in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir. “I am receiving so many messages from people from that region (PoK), thanking me for bringing out the report about human rights and fundamental rights of people in this region and in Gilgit and Baltistan,” she said.

The report of Nicholson was passed by the European Parliament on Thursday last with an overwhelming majority of 522 votes in favour and only nine against it. It was not an easy going for 66-year-old European Parliamentarian from South East England, who is also a Life Peer and a member of the House of Lords, as some diplomats from Pakistan were working overtime ever since her draft report was made public in December last year.

“I know the going was tough but that did not stop my resolve to pursue each and every fact of my report minutely. This exercise helped me in countering every propaganda from any side and today it is definitely a proud moment for me,” a jubilant Nicholson said.

The European Parliament had come down heavily on Pakistan’s repeated failure to protect human rights in PoK and Gilgit and Baltistan and asked Islamabad to close down militant camps operating from that country.

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The Parliament asked militants to declare a ceasefire followed by demobilisation and reintegration process and recognised that without an end to terrorism, there can be no real progress towards a political solution to Kashmir issue or in improving the economic condition of the people in J&K.

She said some of the Pakistani diplomats had approached her in Brussels and London pointing out what they called as factual errors. “I showed them even those documents which were signed by the erstwhile British rulers and the then King of Jammu and Kashmir.