EP debates Emma’s ‘biased’ Kashmir report
28 February, 2007
Brussels: A controversial European Parliament’s draft report on Kashmir came under strong fire during a debate at the EP’s Foreign Affairs Committee on Monday evening.
“The report remains a patronizing, insulting piece of work of the colonial days of divide and rule are over,” thundered British MEP Sajjad Karim.
The committee debated 16 compromise amendments to the 15-page draft report on Kashmir prepared by another British MEP Emma Nicholson but came to no conclusion.
The draft report was due to be adopted by the committee on 30 January, but postponed after a record 450 amendments were tabled.
Nicholson said she has been working with shadow rapporteurs from other political groups on the compromise proposals to the report, “Kashmir: Present situation and future prospects.” Nicholson pleaded with the MEPs “not to overturn the work that has been done,” but in an angry reaction she suggested that the amendment proposals “have come straight from Islamabad.”
Another British MEP, James Elles, criticized the report as “unbalanced and biased” and called for the establishment of a drafting committee to prepare the report. Elles, who heads the All Party Group for Kashmir in the EP queried as to why the rapporteur failed to produce the report on the conflict resolution of Kashmir. He said, “It’s ironic that Baroness Nicholson has ignored the presence of 6,00,000 troops which surpass all the records of military deployments in civilian and populated areas.”
Speaking in the session Baroness Sarah Ludford (MEP), accused the rapporteuer having a “colonial mentality and reminded her that British colonialism no longer exists.”
Pakistan and Kashmiri groups have condemned the report as pro-Indian and biased and have been calling for its amendment. The report criticizes the human rights and democratic situation in Pakistan but praises India as “the world’s largest democracy.”
MEP Richard Howitt even suggested that the report “should sit on the table” and not be debated at all. Pro-Indian MEP Charles Tannock described the report as “factually correct in content” and said he will support the amended report.
One particular reference in the report saying that “continuing calls for a plebiscite on the final status of Jammu and Kashmir are wholly out of step,” drew the wrath of several MEPs. The MEPs said the plebiscite call was an UN resolution and no one has the right to cancel it. The committee is to vote on the amended report in its sitting on March 21, but the fate of the controversial draft remains uncertain.
Barrister Majid Tramboo, Executive Director, Kashmir Centre EU found the “compromise amendments yet another round of Pakistan-bashing and absolutely running contrary to the concerns and aspirations of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.” Curtsy-GK
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