ISLAMABAD: The decision of Pakistan to shift coronavirus-infected people to Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir (PoK) has angered locals.
Pakistan shows two faces when it comes to the issue of Kashmir.
While one is ugly, the other is uglier. When the whole world is currently praising India for its efficient model of controlling the novel coronavirus pandemic, Pakistan has resorted to dirty politics of raising concerns over the safety of the people of Jammu & Kashmir.
Uglier is the dumping of the domestic COVID-19 patients into the PoK to get international aid.
Protests have and are being held across the PoK, Gilgit Baltistan against Pakistan’s decision to put lives of people of this region at risk.
Political leaders, Activists, and locals from these regions say the government of Pakistan was deliberately shifting the coronavirus-infected people from Pakistan to their areas with an intention of getting financial assistance.
The United Kashmir People’ National Party (UKPNP) has lambasted Pakistani government saying that the move was ‘unacceptable’. They have alleged the Imran Khan government of bringing patients from Punjab and the rest of Pakistan to PoK and Mirpur.
Sardar Shaukat Ali Kashmiri, an exiled chairman of UKPNP, alleged Pakistan for using Kashmir to keep sick people from the country.
“Pakistan needs to stop deliberately spreading novel coronavirus in PoK to get international aid,” he said alleging the Pakistani establishment for deliberately spreading coronavirus to get international aid.
He also came down heavily on the Pakistan government for trying to use the territory of Kashmir to keep their sick, which, he claimed is a diabolical move.
The UKPNP, he said, has informed this act to the international community, including the UN and the WHO saying that PoK being a disputed area, Pakistan does not have the right to shift coronavirus patients in this region.
Such a move, he argued, can take the lives of millions of people in the region.
In what can be dubbed as a gross violation of human and civil rights, Pakistan has forced several people living in Mirpur of PoK to evacuate their properties overnight, on the lines of the Chinese way of governance, and has also converted Mohi-Ud-Din Hospital into a quarantine center to lodge coronavirus patients.
The UKPNP has also raised several questions over shifting the coronavirus-infected to PoK when there other open areas and hospitals in Pakistan.
“This is an open secret that Pakistani government has used our areas for its nefarious gains and designs. It also launched operation Operation Tupac, Gulmarg, and Operation Gibraltar to spread the virus of terrorism, extremism, and religious hatred, which has resulted into forced division because of which we lost one whole generation,” said Shaukat.
People in the Gilgit- Baltistan and PoK terrified as poor and inadequate health infrastructure would mean the fast spread of coronavirus in their areas.
These politically insignificant regions of Pakistan have been struggling for several decades for medical facilities, and even for treatment of minor ailments.
A Muzaffarabad-resident Jaffar Ismail says Pakistani Army wants to keep Punjab province safe. Therefore, it treats PoK and Gilgit- Baltistan as its dustbin.
“We have been witnessing the movement of novel COVID-19 patients from all over Punjab to hospitals in Muzaffarabad. We are scared at this latest betrayal of the Kashmiri people by Pakistan army,” Ismail said.
No sooner had the Pakistan Foreign Office (FO) Spokesperson Aisha Farooqui ‘advised’ India to ensure provision of essential items, including medical supplies to the people of Jammu & Kashmir, Pakistan was at the doors of India requesting supply of ventilators and drugs, including hydroxychloroquine.
Pakistan has failed to take care of the basic requirements of the residents of PoK and Gilgit-Baltistan.
Losing hope form the Pakistan government, the people in PoK have requested the government of India to send them food and other necessities due to acute shortage of food in their regions.
Meanwhile, social activists from Hunza area of Gilgit Baltistan have alleged the Pakistan government for negligence while distributing relief materials to the affected people.
Hafiz Hafeezur Rehman, Chief Minister of Gilgit-Baltistan Hafiz Hafeezur has lambasted Islamabad for failing to ensure sufficient financial and technical support to deal with the COVID-19 pandemic.
Comment