ISLAMABAD, Jan 29 (1990): The Pakistan cabinet declared on Monday the country would observe a special week to mark its solidarity with Kashmiris fighting Indian rule.
The meeting devoted to Kashmir, chaired by Nusrat Bhutto while her daughter Prime Minister Benazir Bhutto is recovering from the birth of her second child, gave no details but said the solidarity week would begin on Friday.
It also decided to convene a special joint session of parliament on February 10 to discuss the Kashmir conflict.
Foreign Minister Sahabzada Yaqub Khan is due to spell out Pakistan’s policy on the Kashmir issue in a televised address on Tuesday evening.
He returned from a visit to New Delhi and Nepal last week after underlining Pakistan’s denial that it is responsible for a Moslem rebellion in Indian-controlled Kashmir.
The uprising in Indian Kashmir has plunged relations between the two countries to their lowest point since Bhutto took power in late 1988.
Earlier, militant Kashmiri Amanullah Khan attacked both Pakistan and India for trying to deal with Kashmir bilaterally without giving his people a chance to chose their own future.
“We are masters of our destiny,” said the chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, one of the biggest groups fighting in India’s Jammu and Kashmir state.
He told a news conference he was disappointed more countries had not raised their voices about the violence in the Kashmir valley where more than 60 people died last week.
“They set up societies to protect cats and dogs but they are silent on the massacre going on in Kashmir.”
The official APP news agency said Information Minister Malik Ahmed Saeed Awan told reporters after the cabinet meeting that ministers would meet opposition leaders to try to forge a national consensus on the conflict.
The opposition had called for a meeting of the National Assembly early next month, but Awan said the joint session had been delayed until February 10 to give Bhutto time to recover.
