11 February Maqbool Butt Shaheed Day

Why you should observe 11 february instead of 5 february

I have heard that Kashmir Day is being observed in Pakistan to express solidarity with people of occupied Kashmir today (Thursday). They say, “Pakistan observes Kashmir Day every year on February 5 against Indian oppression in occupied valley.”

The news was exactly this, that “President Mamnoon Hussain and Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif in their separate messages on the occasion of the Kashmir Solidarity Day (Feb.5) have urged the international community to fulfill its promise to the Kashmiris, of granting them their right to self-determination through a free and fair plebiscite as only a just Kashmir solution can bring lasting peace in South Asia.”

In this post I would like to answer to the question that despite of the fact that I am a Kashmiri, why I did not observe 5th February as Kashmir Day or Kashmir Solidarity Day?

Here’s my one reason why I didn’t observe Kashmir Day and why I don’t, because I don’t confuse the right of self-determination with the right of accession of Kashmir to Pakistan or India.

For me Self-determination, is what it is in its real definition which is the freedom of the people of a given territory or national grouping to determine their own political status and how they will be governed without undue influence from any other country. Whereas accession is simply being a part of a state by any other state or state like territory.

The United Nations interest in the situation of Kashmir began in 1947-1948 during the de-colonization process of the British Empire in south Asia. The leaders of what became Pakistan and India reached an agreement with the British that the people of Kashmir would decide their own disposition. That year, the Security Council established the United Nations Commission on India and Pakistan (UNCIP) which, in addition to the Security Council itself, adopted resolutions on 13 August 1948, declaring that the final disposition of Kashmir was to be via a plebiscite of the Kashmiri people carried out under the auspices of the United Nations.

By doing so UNCIP actually granted a right of self-determination to the people of Jammu and Kashmir and to carry out the plebiscite, the Security Council also appointed a Plebiscite Administrator. But sooner, in very next year in 1949, Kashmiris right of self-determination was changed with the right of accession to Pakistan or India, on Pakistan’s request in next resolution of UNCIP on 5 January 1949. According to which, now the people of Jammu and Kashmir have right either to be a part of India or Pakistan.

So anyone who is actually demanding plebiscite in its altered sense is trying to make Kashmir a part of India or Pakistan, but not Kashmir. Observing 5 February as Kashmir Solidarity Day, is nothing but advocating the right of one of two sides.

Writer is an Mphil student at Iqra University Islamabad, blogs at Kashmirica.org and works with Institute for Social and Economic Justice (ISEJ).