Hindu Senator Krishna Kolhi on Friday presided over the Kashmir session of the upper house of the parliament, reported 24NewsHD TV channel.

Addressing the members, Krishna Kolhi remarked that it was a slap on the face of Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi that a Hindu lawmaker was presiding over the Pakistani Senate’s session on Kashmir.

Later, the senators strongly condemned the terrorist attacks in Noshki and Panjgur areas of Balochistan and offered Fateha for martyrs of the security forces.

The House also offered Fateha for personnel of Nowshera police and father of Minister for Maritime Affairs Ali Haider Zaidi. Senator Mushtaq Ahmed led the Fateha and prayed for peace and security of the country.

The senators also adopted a resolution to express solidarity with the people of Kashmir.
Leader of the Opposition in Senate and former prime minister Yousaf Raza Gilani said India was trying to change the population ratio in Kashmir. “If India wants to restore relations with Pakistan, then it should reverse its move of August 5, 2019, through which it repealed the illegally occupied Kashmir’s autonomous status,” Gilani said. He said the Kashmir issue should be resolved according to the wishes of Kashmiris.

He said India had been oppressing Kashmiris for more than seven decades. The Indian state’s violence had reached dangerous levels and it was engaged in genocide of Kashmiris, he maintained.

Gilani said his party leaders like former prime ministers Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto would become a voice of Kashmiris. He said peace was not possible in the South Asia till resolution of the Kashmir conflict. He said his party stood in solidarity with Kashmiris.

He demanded from India to release all political prisoners in Kashmir, lift curfew, stop changing demographic character of Kashmir and restore Kashmir-related confidence building measures.

Meanwhile, Gilani also condemned the recent terrorist attack on the armed forces in Panjgur and Naushki districts of Balochistan.

On this occasion, Leader of the House Senator Dr Shahzad Waseem said Kashmir had become the largest prison in the world as more than 900,000 Indian troops are in occupied Kashmir.

He said the Kashmir issue could not be resolved without the right to self-determination. He announced that the entire nation would celebrate the Kashmir Solidarity Day on February 5. He said the relation between Pakistan and Kashmir was of brotherhood and humanity.