By EuAsiaNews,
Brussels : The head of the pro-Pakistan ‘Kashmir Centre’ in the Belgian capital, Barrister A. Majid Tramboo, applauded here Friday that the European Parliament (EP) raised the issue of Kashmir in its report on the Free Trade Agreement (FTA) between the EU and India.
“I applaud and express my gratitude to the European Parliament for raising the Kashmir issue,” e told a press conference at his Centre Friday afternoon.
Tramboo was referring to para 43 in the EP report which stressed that ” human rights and democracy clauses constitute an essential element of the FTA.”
The EP report voiced “concern by the continuing persecution of religious minorities and human rights defenders in India and the current human rights and security situation in Indian-administered Kashmir.”
The EP adopted the FTA report during its plenary session in the French city of Strasbourg on Thursday with 326 votes in favour, 226 against and 3 abstentions.
Referring to the big number of no votes, Tramboo said “India should be concerned about it. That goes against India.”
He said that in the draft EP report there was also a reference to the ‘’mass graves issue ‘’ in Kashmir but it was dropped from the adopted text.
The EP report expressed disappointment with the slow pace of negotiations, and said it would like to see a FTA signed with India by the end of 2010. The EU and India launched negotiations for an FTA in 2007.
Tramboo told the press conference that there were “three very important developments” recently concerning Kashmir, noting that the Kashmir Centre sent a delegation to the UN Human Rights Council during its 10th session in Geneva this month in order to keep the issue of Kashmir on the agenda.
Tramboo , who graduated from the university of Kashmir, received his LLB from the university of Bombay and runs a law firm in the UK, paid his compliments to the United Kingdom Foreign and Commonwealth Office (FCO) for raising the issue of Mass Graves in Kashmir in its Annual Report on Human Rights 2008.
And thirdly, he pointed to the Kashmir reference in the FTA report
Considered to be the most active pro-Pakistan campaigner on the Kashmir issue in Europe, Tramboo said he will continue pursuing the matter on all international fora and organize regular press
conferences in Brussels to inform the international press about the Kashmir ssue.
Tramboo said he is planning an “election bus tour” during the European Parliament elections in June to visit various European capitals to “keep the Kashmir issue alive.”
He claimed that the European Commission is “very active” on the Kashmir issue.
“They raise the issue on Kashmir in all EU-India summits,” noted Tramboo.
Meanwhile, the author of the EP’s FTA report, British Member of the European Parliament Sajjad Karim commented that “trade between India and the EU has more than doubled in the past decade but a free trade deal would cause an explosion of transactions between us.”
“Socialist MEPs had attempted to invert this report towards one that would enshrine protectionism. Fortunately we have overturned their position and sent a powerful signal that trade liberalisation is ultimately in all our interests,” he said in press statements.
Karim , of Pakistani origin, was elected in 2004 for the Liberal Democrats, but joined the Conservative Party in 2007 .