Inquisition From Within

THE dispute in London last week was unusual. British MPs from the Labour Party were facing questions over their support to the Pakistani government in the past.But the challenge to them came not from New Delhi—it never effectively has—but from Islamabad. These champions of Pakistan complained to the Speaker of the House of Commons, Betty Boothroyd, that moves were afoot to involve them in financial scandals, moves that had been initiated by the Pakistani government. The MPs needed to be rescued from those they believed they had been trying to save.

바카라 웹사이트After years of mustering a campaign over Kashmir, the wheel has come full circle to rest at a point the Pakistanis could never have wanted. The spokesman of a Kashmiri group has openly accused the Pakistani government of "trying to discredit their supporters". The Kashmir lobby in Britain has always been a world of its own, and its links with Kashmir on either the Indian or the Pakistani side have been marginal, at most. This lobby has now been rocked by financial allegations and charges of incompetence. Moreover, some of the men regarded as trusted lieutenants of the movement are turning against its leaders and their lobbies.

The spark for this new Kashmir lobby crisis was provided by a Sunday Times investigation into Benazir Bhutto's assets abroad. A spin-off from that probe was an accompanying report alleging that the Benazir government had channelled £300,000 into a company called Asian Voice funding East, a Pakistani weekly in London. Labour MP George Galloway, who has been closely involved in the running of East, was said to have been one of the beneficiaries, an allegation he denies. "The allegations in The Sunday Times are totally false, and the matter is now in the hands of my solicitors," he told 바카라 in London. Richard Casby, managing editor of The Sunday Times, says the newspaper stands by its story.

What shook the Pakistan-backed Kashmir lobby was not so much the report as the push behind it. The Sunday Times quoted Pakistani sources for much of its information. Stephen Gray, a co-author of the report, carried out much of his investigation in Islamabad. Saifur Rehman, the Ehtesaab (Accountability) Commissioner of Pakistan now on a global hunt for Benazir's treasures, said "there is an investigation into money given to Galloway's company to help set up the magazine" and that "she was hoping to use him as her personal lobbyist under the cover of raising the issue of Kashmir." Rehman added that "he (Galloway) is involved in our investigation and the case will be passed on to the courts if appropriate". Clearly, if The Sunday Times investigated, it is the Pakistani government that did much of the digging.

Pakistan's lobbyists don't quite know what to make of this attack from the home front. But they are openly complaining against the Pakistani government. The newspaper Jang reported that several MPs had complained to Boothroyd that attempts are being made to connect them to payments from Pakistan. Boothroyd has handed the complaint to the police who have promised to protect the MPs from what a Pakistani newspaper called "intrusive and insulting" investigations. But the Pakistani government is looking for evidence of its own hospitality that might have done more for the MPs than for its cause on Kashmir. The flip side of this investigation is worrying some Kashmiri lobbyists more than anything else. "This means that the present government might not be offering the same kind of support any more to the same lobbyists," says Afzal Tahir of the Kashmir International Front.

The Kashmiri case in Britain has waned on several fronts. A fracas over the Queen's speech in Pakistan led to a clarification by Tony Blair that Britain would not meddle in Kashmir. To the lobby, that was a clear signal that they must continue as they had before under a Tory regime, that Labour in government would not do in Kashmir as they would have liked it to. Foreign secretary Robin Cook, whatever his personal views, had to fall in line with Blair. Now the lobbies are coming apart under the threat of a Pakistani inquisition. The Kashmiris gained nothing by lobbying. And now it seems that Pakistan too has gained nothing; only India has, by doing nothing.

For the MPs, questions now hang about payments and benefits. In the POK council, Sardar Abdul Qayuum declined to disclose how a sum of Rs 56 crore was spent. He claimed that spilling the beans would give India critical information. But substantial attempts have been spent on visiting British MPs, information of which is now being made available publicly and privately to the British government. And since Labour MPs started much of this, handling the adverse press is now their problem.

Significantly, there are a host of Kashmir lobbies for Pakistan here. That none of these organisations, and certainly not all of them together, have been working well has been apparent for some time. But now a senior Pakistani leader based in Britain, Syed Nazir Gilani, who has worked tirelessly with these groups to campaign for Kashmiri self-determination has told them all that they have failed to deliver. Gilani, secretary-general of the Jammu and Kashmir Council for Human Rights, wrote that British Kashmiris have been "ghettoing themselves in political shells" and said "this ghettoing may have been a reason that our efforts seem to have no bearing on the quality of life and politics in Indian-controlled Kashmir".

Gilani's letter was addressed to Roger Godsiff, chairman of the All Parliamentary Kashmir Group; Gerald Kaufman, chairman of the Justice for Kashmir; Lord Eric Avebury, chairman of Friends of Kashmir; and Michael Colvin, chairman of Conservative Friends of Kashmir. The list of lobbies does not end with these four. Galloway's group, National Lobby on Kashmir, and others were not included. But Gilani asked the four groups: "Do our efforts need to end in the Committee Room in the House of Commons or at a reception or a dinner, with a ritualistic hurling of opprobrium, far distanced from the common cause of the common men, women and children in Kashmir?"

바카라 웹사이트Divisions among the groups have been deepening over time, even though Kaufman's group has decided to back Galloway in the campaign against him by the Pakistani government. Ailama Azimjee, general secretary of Kaufman's group, has pleaded with the Pakistani government to stop the inquiries against Galloway. Azimjee said in a press note that Galloway, who was awarded the Sitara-e-Pakistan, one of the highest civilian awards, by Benazir, "should be given the Nobel Prize". But the Kashmir lobby will be tested by more than rhetoric.

Lord Avebury has called a meeting on Kashmir with representatives from all sides to the dispute. From the Indian side he has invited representatives from the BJP, the Congress, the National Conference and the Hurriyat (including individual leaders and parties within Hurriyat) as well as representatives from Jammu and Ladakh. On the Pakistani side, he has invited members from all the parties within Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK) and from Gilgit and Baltistan. But Lord Avebury's attempt to resolve the Kashmir issue sitting in London are not expected to yield much. Few from the Indian side have accepted his invitation so far. In fact, the BJP government is expected to disregard this meeting quietly.

"They are promoting the hidden and not-so hidden agenda of the ISI," Afzal Tahir from the Kashmir International Front told 바카라. "The attendance is loaded in favour of Muslims from the Valley and from POK," he said. For Lord Avebury the refusal by the Indian side to attend will be seen as a refusal to face the problem. For India any attendance will mean a recognition of a far from neutral Lord Avebury as arbiter. Indian attendance is critical but effectively a non-issue. To the Kashmir lobbies in Britain, what is more worrying is the differences within what the Pakistanis like to call their side.