This article analyses Pakistan’s Kashmir policy from1989 to 1995. This period constitutes a new phase inPakistan’s Kashmir policy as it was synchronized with the resurgence of Kashmiri resistancemovement. During the previous two decades Kashmir issue was overlooked because Pakistan wasentangled with many other problems, ranging fromcrisis in East Pakistan to the problems arising fromthe Soviet intervention in Afghanistan. Therefore,Pakistan was providing only lip service by placingrhetorical emphasis on the UN’s resolutionconcerning Kashmir.
This article makes an historical analysis of Pakistani Kashmir policy between 1947-88. Besides providing a synoptic view of the Kashmir policies, pursued by various regimes in Pakistan both civilian and military also provides a thorough insight into all the major developments concerning Kashmir dispute as well as the responses of Pakistani governments’ visà- vis these developments. It contextualizes these main planks of Pakistan’s Kashmir policy by situating historical factors which invariably shaped its main contours.
One planned a year and a half back to record the memories of the elderly persons who witnessed the Partition of India and bore it on their souls. The untold tales of the painful migration of 1947 should reach the common man. We have preserved on YouTube channel called ‘Partition Diary’ the stories of nearly 100 old men who now live in various places of Bahawalnagar and Pakpattan districts of Punjab (Pakistan).
With the passing decades, nationalist fervor and mutual suspicion have largely replaced memories of mass death and displacement during the chaotic cleaving of Pakistan from India.
A standard narrative exists about the role of Muslims during the Partition in India, which talks about how the Muslim community, led by Muhammad Ali Jinnah and his Muslim League, stood for the two-nation theory and demanded the Partition of India. Historical documents, however, suggest that a majority of the Muslims opposed the Partition and stayed in India.
