Senate approves policy guidelines over rising Pakistan-India tension

ISLAMABAD: The upper house of the parliament on Friday approved a report, containing policy guidelines over the changing regional situation following a recent freeze in relations between Pakistan and India in the wake of Uri attack and cross-border ceasefire violations.

Senator Raza Rabbani headed the session today during which a 13-member special senate committee on Pak-India relations proposed a policy guidelines report in the session.

The report suggested that a task force should be formed over India Kashmir policy, in which representatives of the defence and foreign affairs should also be included.

In order to counter Indian propaganda, a media coordination committee should be formed; it said and added that the committee must also highlight various movements currently running within India.

The report also proposed the idea of taking help from the platforms of social media for promoting and highlighting Kashmir’s freedom worldwide.

It also demanded to appoint a permanent Minister of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan and urged to re-establish public diplomacy office at the foreign office level

The report also insisted on taking the issue of Kulbhushan Yadav – an arrested spy of India’s Research and Analysis Wing (RAW) – on a maximum number of international platforms.

Pakistan must contact Saarc (South Asian Association for Regional Cooperation) nations over a failed attempt of India to isolate Pakistan.

The report asked to take member countries of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) into confidence over the burning issue of Kashmir.

Regarding the disputed valley of held Kashmir, the report also proposed to convene an international conference soon.

A message should be sent to the world that there was no option for non-state actors to operate in Pakistan when the country was already fighting a tough war against terrorism, the report said.

The report also clarified that non-state actors would not be allowed to use Pakistani territory at any cost.