For decades, Pakistan has attempted to cloak its hostile designs on Jammu and Kashmir in the language of moral righteousness. Every few years, when its internal crises deepen or its global relevance wanes, Islamabad reaches for the same familiar script issuing resolutions, staging diplomatic theatrics and invoking hollow slogans of self-determination. Its latest move, the passage of a so-called plebiscite resolution in Pakistan’s National Assembly, fits squarely within this pattern. This is not a call for justice, nor an expression of genuine concern for the Kashmiri people. It is, rather, a carefully choreographed prelude to chaos designed to destabilize, distract and revive a conflict that Pakistan itself has sustained for generations.
The language of the resolution may sound lofty, but its intent is neither new nor noble. Pakistan has long relied on emotional manipulation, presenting itself as a benevolent well-wisher of Kashmiris while simultaneously radicalizing them through propaganda and violence. This playbook has been tried repeatedly: romanticize resistance, obscure reality and funnel disillusioned youth towards militancy. The current resolution, orchestrated at the behest of Pakistan’s deep state, is another hollow gesture meant to provoke unrest and keep Kashmir in international headlines. All the while, Pakistan’s own hands remain stained with the blood of generations lost to a conflict it refuses to let die.
For families like mine, this is not abstract geopolitics. Entire generations were pushed into an abyss of violence and despair schools were burnt, thinkers were silenced and lives were extinguished by Pakistan-sponsored proxies. Dreams were deferred indefinitely and normalcy became a distant memory. Today, when Kashmiris are finally beginning to experience the dividends of peace, new roads, functioning schools, economic opportunity and young minds choosing innovation over insurrection, Pakistan dares to drag us backward. It is an act not just of hypocrisy, but of moral bankruptcy.
To understand the duplicity behind Pakistan’s claims, one must revisit the very resolution it now selectively invokes. Pakistan demands that India honour United Nations Security Council Resolution 47 of 1948, which spoke of a plebiscite to determine Kashmir’s future. What Pakistan deliberately omits is the resolution’s first and most fundamental condition: Pakistan is required to fully withdraw Pakistani Forces First including tribesmen and militants who invaded Jammu and Kashmir in 1947,. That invasion ignited the conflict in the first place. Nearly eight decades later, that withdrawal has never occurred. Instead of complying, Pakistan entrenched itself militarily and politically, rendering the resolution obsolete through its own actions.
Worse still, Pakistan transformed the territories under its illegal occupation into a demographic experiment. The region it calls “Azad Kashmir” has been systematically altered through state-sponsored settlement policies. Punjabis among them ex-servicemen, bureaucrats and civilians have been deliberately settled there, inflating the population from approximately 29 lakhs in 1998 to over 45 lakhs by 2017. Meanwhile, indigenous communities such as Gujjars, Sudhans and native Kashmiris have been marginalized, dispossessed of their lands and culturally diluted. This is not accidental migration; it is a structured colonization project. Even the provinces like KPK, Gilgit Baltistan, Sindh, which are under illegal possession of Pakistan since 1947 have been drained out of all the natural resources not for the welfare and development of these regions but filling of personal coffers of Pakistani Politicians & Pakistani Generals, of which not only people from Pakistan Occupied Jammu & Kashmir are aware but the entire world knows about it.
The objective behind this demographic manipulation is transparent. Pakistan hopes that, should a plebiscite ever occur, these transplanted populations would ensure a favorable outcome for Islamabad. It is an attempt to rig history itself. Yet Pakistan underestimates the very people it claims to champion. The locals see through this strategy and they have had enough. Their resistance is no longer whispered it is shouted in the streets. In Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir, defiance has become impossible to ignore. Muzaffarabad and other towns have witnessed sustained protests against economic exploitation, political disenfranchisement and demographic marginalization. Protesters openly challenge Pakistan’s authority, decrying the “outsider chokehold” that has strangled their autonomy for decades.
In a stunning reversal of Pakistan’s narrative, many now openly appeal to India not as an oppressor, but as a potential liberator. The very state Pakistan paints as the villain is increasingly seen as a symbol of stability, dignity and opportunity.
This awakening exposes the hollowness of Pakistan’s propaganda. Indigenous Kashmiris in Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir are realizing what those on this side of the Line of Control have long known: Pakistan does not offer salvation; it offers subjugation. Its slogans promise freedom, but its policies deliver control. If Pakistan believes these people would willingly endorse its authority in any hypothetical plebiscite, it is deeply deluded. Many would sooner reject the process entirely than legitimize their colonizers.
Yet the truth is that Pakistan has never truly wanted a fair or free plebiscite. Turmoil, not resolution, serves its interests. Instability keeps the region volatile and ensures that Kashmir remains a diplomatic pressure point against India. Pakistani political leaders, acting on cues from their real power center the General Headquarters in Rawalpindi routinely proclaim moral and diplomatic support for Kashmiris. But their tangible legacy is decades of bloodshed.
The role of Pakistan’s security establishment, particularly the Inter-Services Intelligence, in fostering terrorism is well documented. Over the years, it armed and trained militant groups such as the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, Hizb-ul-Mujahideen, Al-Badr, Lashkar-e-Taiba and later, Jaish-e-Mohammed. These organizations unleashed waves of violence, killing civilians, targeting minorities and sabotaging peace initiatives. Even more disturbing is how Pakistani political figures have glorified these militants, openly referring to them as “heroes” while denying responsibility for their crimes.
The human cost of this strategy has been immense. Former separatist leaders, once celebrated by Pakistan, now admit to having been misled. Figures like Abdul Gani Bhat, Javed Ahmed Mir (Javed Nalka) & Dr GM Hubi have publicly acknowledged that they wandered “in total darkness” for decades, achieving nothing but death and destruction while Pakistan pulled the strings from behind the scenes. Their confessions stand as a damning indictment of Islamabad’s duplicity.
Against this backdrop, Pakistan’s latest resolution is unmistakably a dog whistle an invitation to its remaining proxies to rekindle unrest, disrupt peace and return Kashmir to the cycle of violence. It seeks to undo the fragile but real progress that has been made and to ensure that Kashmir remains a bleeding headline rather than a healing society.
The contrast with present-day realities in Jammu and Kashmir could not be starker. India is investing heavily in the region’s development, channeling billions into infrastructure, education, healthcare and connectivity. Literacy rates are rising, tourism is reviving and economic opportunities are expanding. Young Kashmiris are increasingly choosing laptops over stones, startups over street battles and aspirations over anger. They are imagining futures that extend beyond the barrel of a gun.
Peace, of course, is not perfect. No post-conflict society transforms overnight. But it is palpable. It can be seen in classrooms that remain open year-round, in roads that connect remote villages and in the quiet confidence of a generation determined not to inherit the failures of the past. This peace is a dividend earned through resilience, not rhetoric.
Pakistan’s hypocrisy, therefore, is an insult to every Kashmiri who has dared to dream beyond its shadow. It was Pakistan that rendered Resolution 47 meaningless by refusing to comply with its terms. It was Pakistan that hollowed out Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir through demographic engineering. It was Pakistan that preached piety while nurturing terror. And now, as Jammu and Kashmir rebuild itself, Pakistan schemes once more to drag it back into darkness.
But the times have changed. The people have changed. Kashmiris today are far more informed, discerning and assertive than previous generations. They recognize manipulation when they see it. They understand who profits from perpetual conflict and who pays its price.
Pakistan must come to terms with an uncomfortable truth: its narrative is collapsing. Earlier generations may have been lost to its machinations, but this one will not follow. Kashmir’s future does not lie in orchestrated chaos or recycled resolutions. It lies in peace, progress and the collective will of a people determined to move forward. Pakistan may stew in its failures, but Jammu and Kashmir are choosing a different destiny one rooted not in darkness, but in hope.\