Pakistan
Government
"There has been a maximum of 10 per cent turnout in
some areas, while in most parts it was as low as two per cent."
- Pervez Musharraf, President, Islamabad, September
23, 2002.
"The people of Kashmir have rejected those elections.
They are being coerced and forced to participate. We know from past
experiences what kind of elections they were. What happens in the present
exercise, we will get to know as the process goes on."
- Aziz Ahmed Khan, Foreign Office spokesperson,
Islamabad, September 16, 2002.
"Such elections, under Indian occupation, will not
help peace; they must set it back. The people of Jammu and Kashmir must
be allowed to exercise their right to determine their own future in
accordance with the relevant resolutions of the UN Security Council."
- Pervez Musharraf, President, Address to the United
Nations General Assembly, New York, September 12, 2002.
"No polls can be a substitute for (the) plebiscite
promised to the people of Kashmir by the United Nations and India itself."
- Aziz Ahmed Khan, Spokesperson, Pakistani Foreign
Office, Islamabad, September 12, 2002.
"The
government of Pakistan condemns the terrorist attack in Held Kashmir
which led to the death of Mushtaq Ahmad Lone, a minister in Held Kashmir,
as well as other civilians… The government of Pakistan has always opposed
terrorism in all its forms and manifestations."
-
Pakistan Foreign Office Spokesperson, Islamabad, September 11, 2002.
"What are they holding
the elections for? The Kashmiris have rejected them. They are not permitting
either their local or international observers? Will they be monitored
by the Indian troops."
- Nisar A. Memon, Minister
for Information and Media Development, Islamabad, August 23, 2002.
"The announcement
by India to hold elections in Indian occupied Kashmir (Jammu and Kashmir)
is yet another effort to give a mask of legitimacy to India’s illegal
occupation of Jammu and Kashmir. Pakistan’s position on this issue is
based on United Nations Security Council resolutions. Elections can
not be a substitute for a free and impartial plebiscite under the auspices
of the United Nations. The All Parties Hurriyat Conference, the sole
credible voice of the Kashmiri people has already rejected the holding
of such elections, as have some other parties. The government of India
has organized such farcical elections in the past a well. These so-called
elections have invariably been retched and have always been boycotted
by the Kashmiri people if the past is any guide the elections planned
by India will once again take place without the participation of the
Kashmiri people and they are only designed to obtain pre-determined
results… Pakistan can not accept any responsibility for developments
inside Indian occupied Kashmir nor can India try to shift the onus of
the failure of elections to Pakistan."
- Pervez Musharraf,
President, Islamabad, August 14, 2002.
"The Indians have held
such farces of elections many times before… Regardless of the drama
they (the Indians) would like to enact, that is no substitute for giving
them (Kashmiris) a choice of joining Pakistan or India."
- Maj. Gen Rashid Qureshi,
Military Regime Spokesperson, Rawalpindi, August 10, 2002.
"Pakistan can in no
way influence the election one way or the other… there is something
they (India) want to hide. That is the reason they are not allowing
foreign observers which is quite customary these days."
- Aziz Ahmed Khan, Foreign
Ministry spokesperson, Islamabad, August 5, 2002.
"All of India's attempts
and trickery has failed in Kashmir and elections are the last attempt…
I just want to tell that whosoever will take oath under Indian constitution
(after taking part in elections) will sell out his freedom for good."
- Sardar Abdul Qayyum
Khan, National Kashmir Committee chairman, Muzaffarabad, July 19, 2002.
"It is, therefore, clear
that no election held in occupied Kashmir under the Indian constitution,
and under the barrel of Indian guns could be a substitute for a free
and fair plebiscite under UN auspices."
- Pakistan Foreign Office
spokesperson, Islamabad, July 4, 2002.
"Basically the conditions
in Kashmir are not set that will warrant a fair elections".
- Sardar Abdul Qayyum
Khan, National Kashmir Committee chairman, June 22, 2002.
Political
and Religious Parties
"Elections under the
shadow of the Indian guns in the occupied Jammu Kashmir can neither
be expected to be fair and transparent nor be the substitute for the
plebiscite committed by the world community through the UN resolutions
on Kashmir."
- Sharif Tariq Chaudhry,
former Jammu Kashmir Liberation League President, August 21, 2002.
"Staging drama of
holding of the so-called elections in India held Kashmir is not the
solution for establishment of durable and permanent peace in South Asia
rather early implementation of the UN Security Council’s resolutions
on Kashmir is the need to achieve the task."
- Maulana Attiq ur Rehman,
president Jammiat-Ulema-e-Jammu & Kashmir, August 29, 2002.
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