ISLAMABAD: A National Assembly committee on Thursday criticised the government for failing to arouse the international community into action against the long continuing atrocities in Indian-held Kashmir.

Members of the National Assembly Standing Committee on Human Rights, meeting to discuss the issue, considered it a failure as the world community is quick in imposing sanctions on Pakistan citing human rights violations as a reason; it is unmoved in the case of India.

`Seventy years have gone by and there is no end to the bloodshed in Indian-held Kashmir. Our Foreign Office needs to revisit its traditional policy on Kashmir, breathe new life into it and come up with a new strategy for a peaceful breakthrough,` said Jamaat-iIslami (JI) MNA Sahibzada Muhammad Yaqub.

Additional Secretary (Asia Pacific), Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA), Syed Zulfiqar Gardezi tried to explain the min-istry`s `heightened efforts on the Kashmir cause`, but the committee found them wanting and asked the Foreign Office to wake up to the dire situation.

`How long will the Foreign Office depend on Black Days and Kashmir Days? What is the result of commemorating such days when Pakistan cannot even muster support of the international community on Kashmir,` asl(ed PTI MNA, Munaza Hassan.

Another Foreign Office official, Syed Zulfiqar Gardezi, responded that Pakistan had been fighting for the Kashmir cause at all levels`.

It was difficult to get countries to support Pakistan on the Kashmir issue, especially when most nations had business interests with India, he explained.

Some countries hesitate to extend that support for they themselves had records of human rights violations and could not risk being put on the spot.

`Pakistan, however, has been able to getastrongreactionfromtheOrganisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), condemning Indian brutalities in Kashmir. In some parliaments members raised voice againstthe atrocities, but their governments have not publicly denounced gross violations of human rights by the Indian army in Kashmir, the way Pakistan wanted,` he added.

But the official`s explanations left the committee members unimpressed.

`I see defeatism in your comment s,` said Munaza Hassan, demanding `Why does Pakistan underestimate itself, especially when it`s a nuclear power and can put pressure on international community.

At this Syed Gardezi responded with another explanation. Kashmir is the corner stone of Pakistan`s foreign policy and the present government, like those preceding it, was nowhere lacking in its endeavours for the Kashmir cause, he said.

`We all know that the present Indian government is extremely aggressive, not just in the matter of Kashmir but also towards other minorities in India and the international community is silent on those too,` the official said.

Other members, like PPP`s Dr Shazia Sobia and PML-N`s Phyllis Azeem, wanted to know what Pakistan had done to help the Kashmiris injured in Indianarmy`s indiscriminate firing of pallets.

Syed Gardezi replied that Pakistan had raised this concern with the international community and written to the United Nations as well as humanitarian organizations such as the International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC) to come to the aid of the injured, but to no avail.

`India does not permit UN military observers into Kashmir let alone humanitarian workers to assist Kashmiris injured during clashes with its army, the official explained.

But the committee members continued to complain to PML-N MNA Babar Nawaz, chairman of the committee, that the foreign office official was holding back information.

`I feel the same that the official is hesitant to share information,` said Babar Nawaz.

`We will invite Advisor to the PM on Foreign Affairs, Sartaj Aziz, to explain why the Ministry of Foreign Affairs has failed to find a solution to the Kashmir dispute, and also why he (Sartaj Aziz) was mistreated by the Indian officials during his last visit to India.