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Sardar Qayyum Khan was a Synonym for courage and Prudence: Dr. Fai

Articles, Uncategorised
Washington, D.C. July 12, 2015. Dr. Fai expressed condolences on the demise of Sardar Abdul Qayyum Khan Sahib, former Prime Minister and former President of Azad Kashmir who breathed his last at the age of 91 on Friday July 10, 2015 at his residence in Islamabad. Inna Lillah-e-Wa- Inna Ilahi Rajioon. May Allah (s.w.t.) elevate his status as the guided person, comfort him in his grave, make his grave part of Jannatul Firdous and give Sabr to the family! Ameen.
 
“Sardar Qayyum Khan was a captivating personality, iconic leader with prudence, shrewdness and judiciousness. He was a legendary and eminent politician of Azad Kashmir who rendered his services for upholding the human and political rights of the people of the State. His advocacy of the cause of Kashmir at the corridors of power at international capitols have had a lasting impact on the policy makers, where he used to make a persuasive and convincing case for the resolution of Kashmir dispute,” Fai added.
 
He was a courageous leader who understood the long road ahead of laboring for the minds and hearts of people when he told us in Washington in 1994 that our top priority should be to make sure that the leadership of the State of Jammu & Kashmir is at one page.
 
He was a man with a vision. When asked by Amr Mousaa, then the foreign minister of Egypt during the Islamic Summit in Tehran in 1997, ‘who will represent Kashmiris if they are giving a seat at the negotiating table’? “The answer is simple. All Parties Hurriyet Conference will be our sole representative in any dialogue between India and Kashmir,” Sardar Qayyum Khan replied.
 
Sardar Sahib always emphasized that will of the people of Kashmir must prevail whenever the parties – India and Pakistan – reach a final settlement of the Kashmir dispute.
 
He was a giant among Kashmiri politicians. We will miss him a lot!

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    Dr. Ayub Thakur: Friend, Colleague and Visionary Leader

     

    Dr. Muhammad Ayyub Thakur, the first of four children, was born in 1948 in Pudsoo village near Shopian, in the Pulwama district of Kashmir.

    It was 1973 when I first heard that Dr. Ayub Thakur was active in raising the awareness about the Kashmir dispute at Kashmir University and was the President of Kashmir University Research Scholar’s Association. One fine morning I went to see him along with a family friend, Jinab Aashiq Kashmiri, then the Editor of Daily Azan. We just knocked on the door at his university apartment and went in. I had never met Dr. Thakur until that time. After greeting us, he went out and in few minutes brought a cook and told him to prepare the lunch for us. We told him that we did not want to eat. It is customary in Kashmir to say that even if you are hungry. He did not listen to us and the cook prepared the lunch and we had a delicious meal.

  • Kashmiri aspirations must be respected

    “If parties (India & Pakistan) come here and both of them call upon the Security Council to make recommendations for the solution of their (Kashmir) dispute, ought they not in advance agree to abide by it? They are not bound to ask the Security Council to make such recommendations, but if they do, I ask the Committee of Experts if they have not thereby implied that they will conform or try to conform to them.” Ambassador Warren Austin of the United States at the Security Council on May 26, 1948.

    If promises are made to be broken, then Kashmir may be summoned to prove the treacherous proposition. Broken promises haunt Kashmir’s history, and explain its tragedy.

    The Kashmir issue is simply this: the people of a large territory which is not part of any existing sovereign state were assured by the entire international community represented by the United Nations that they would be enabled to decide their future by a free vote. Until now, this assurance has not been honored.

    With the lapse of British paramountcy on August 15, 1947, broken promises over Kashmir came not like single spies but in battalions, to borrow from Hamlet. Princely states enjoyed three options: accession to India, accession to Pakistan, or independence. But the choice, according to India’s Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru and tacitly endorsed by the British,