Daily Diary (DD) - Day 336 of 2019

1500hrs:

Plodding along......still keeping public interaction at a minimum in order to get on top of work that remains pending.

Here's our daily video update explaining our current status:

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After many years - indeed decades - of back-door diplomacy, the Pakistani desire to swallow AJK and GB is now an open discussion on Pakistani TV. This programme on Aaj TV was aired yesterday evening:

Here are some notes I extracted from it:

Air Vice Marshal Shehzad Choudhary rtd - Defence Analyst

- We have a 'principled stand'
- AJK is a part of Kashmir Valley - we can't change that status - keep that in abeyance.
- But we can swallow GB like Indians have swallowed Ladakh..(or we can leave that to China to deal with.

Leuitenant General Abdul Qayoom rtd - PML-N  

- International Law Challenges
- Cannot make our stance weak i.e. We cannot do what India has done 
- AJK is free and has no problems - It is the Kashmir Valley that is suffering HR abuses.
- Problem will not go away until all parties agree on settlement and UN involvement is necessary for that.

Choudhary Manzoor - (Left) PPP

- Plebiscite for all territory
- Kashmir, Pakistan and UN (Agreement needed in that order)

Dr. Talat Farooq - Senior Consultant IPRI

- We need pro-active diplomatic stance
- UN resolutions
- Mobilise diaspora
- We should wait for end of curfew before we take further action
- Look at how China handles Ladakh

Extracted Summary:
Most panelists (including presenter) gave impression that India wants them (viz. Pakistan) to do what they have done to permanently divide the territory of J & K and make LOC International border.  

Of course, the Pakistanis are more calculated than that and will continue using ambiguity to gave us the perception that they have a very principled stand of standing up for the rights of the Valley Kashmiris. Which by extension means that we - the sheep of AJK and GB - are fully behind them.

We are not and hence the absence of our voice in the Pakistani State narrative.

The following was my comment on Youtube:

A very self-serving and self appreciating programme which stinks of hubris and has very little reference to the sentiments of the people that are the legal inheritors of the territory in question.

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The quest for re-opening Sharda continues from the other side of the LOC:

@DrJitendraSingh @DrSJaishankar @MOS_MEA @Tarunvijay @vinay1011 @AdityaRajKaul @sonalkalra @subhashkak1 @KiranKS @KashmiriPandit7 Called on MoS external affairs in parliament house today to take forward Sharda mission in light of LoC permit- whether applicable now. Jai sharda ! pic.twitter.com/CHdUmTzgCx

— Ravinder Pandita (@panditaAPMCC63) December 2, 2019

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