PPP leader Bilawal slams Imran Khan’s PoK referendum proposal

INTERNATIONAL DESK: Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Saturday rejected Prime Minister Imran Khan’s proposal to hold a referendum in Pak occupied Kashmir to decide whether the residents wanted to live with Pakistan or as an independent nation.

The PPP chairman, speaking to media in Karachi, said PM Imran Khan always “always manages to say the wrong thing about Kashmir”, reported Geo News.

“[He] considers the people of Kashmir fools and traitors. From the beginning, PPP has always maintained that the Kashmiri people should decide their own fate,” added Bilawal.

His remarks came a few hours after Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly Shahbaz Sharif had rejected the premier’s statement assuring Kashmiris a right to opt for independence.

“The entire nation rejects anything other than Pakistan’s historic position on the Jammu and Kashmir dispute and UN Security Council resolutions,” Shahbaz said.

“The Jammu and Kashmir dispute will be decided according to a transparent and independent plebiscite held under the auspices of the United Nations and this is the position of the people of Pakistan and Kashmir,” he said.

While addressing an election rally in Tarar, Imran Khan had promised the people of PoK that his government will hold a referendum in which they could choose to join Pakistan or become an independent state.

“… What I want to make clear now is that in 1948, there were two United Nations Security Council resolutions which granted the people of Kashmir the right to decide their future. According to the UN resolutions, the people have to decide whether they want to join Hindustan or Pakistan,” the Prime Minister had said.

He went on to state that even after the UN-mandated referendum, his government will hold another referendum, where the people of PoK will be given the choice to either live with Pakistan or become an independent state, reported Geo News.