Pakistan is planning to dispatch a parliamentary delegation to the United Kingdom and Europe in a fresh diplomatic push to revive international attention on the Kashmir issue by engaging lawmakers, policymakers, think tanks and media organisations, The Tribune has learnt.
The move comes as Islamabad seeks to reinvigorate its Kashmir campaign internationally despite India’s repeated assertion that Jammu and Kashmir is an internal matter and that meaningful engagement with Pakistan cannot take place in an atmosphere of terrorism.
The proposal emerged during a meeting on Thursday between Pakistan’s Parliamentary Committee on Kashmir, headed by Federal Minister Rana Muhammad Qasim Noon, and a delegation of the Islamabad Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Islamabad.
As per sources, Noon told the delegation that the parliamentary committee intends to visit the United Kingdom and the European Union to engage members of Parliament, policymakers, think tanks, media representatives and members of the Pakistani and Kashmiri diaspora.
The outreach is aimed at projecting Pakistan’s narrative on Kashmir and mobilising political and public opinion in Western capitals over its position on the issue.
The committee is also planning to convene a national conference on Kashmir in Islamabad in the coming weeks as part of a broader effort to build domestic consensus and reinforce Pakistan’s diplomatic messaging.
The latest initiative comes even as India has repeatedly rejected Pakistan’s attempts to internationalise Kashmir, maintaining that the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir is an integral and inalienable part of India.
New Delhi has consistently maintained that all outstanding issues with Pakistan must be resolved bilaterally and that the only remaining issue is the vacation of Indian territories under Pakistan’s illegal occupation.
India has also repeatedly accused Pakistan of using international forums to deflect attention from cross-border terrorism and its continued support for terrorist infrastructure directed against India.