Kashmiris must be given 'self-determination' right: Pak panel

A Pakistani parliamentary panel today asked India to give Kashmiris "the right to self-determination."

The call was made by the parliamentary special committee on Kashmir during a meeting chaired by Jamiat Ulema-e-Islam chief Maulana Fazlur Rahman.

The meeting discussed the "volatile situation" in Jammu and Kashmir and officials from the foreign office, led by acting foreign secretary Muhammad Haroon Shaukat, briefed the panel.

The committee expressed "deep anguish" over what it described as the deteriorating situation in the Kashmir Valley.

It expressed full support on behalf of Pakistan to the Kashmiri people "for their right to self-determination."

The committee also rejected the remarks made recently in India by British prime minister David Cameron about Pakistan promoting the export of terror.

It said that Cameron should instead have taken notice of the situation in Jammu and Kashmir.

Britain should endeavour to resolve the Kashmir issue, "which is her responsibility as it is an unfinished agenda of the partition of the subcontinent," the committee said.

The panel also passed a resolution in support of the "just struggle of the Kashmiris."