The government of Pakistan conferred its highest civilian award, Nishan-e-Pakistan, on separatist leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani on the country’s independence day on Friday.
The award was announced days after Geelani resigned from the chairmanship of a faction of Hurriyat Conference. The other faction considered moderate is led by Mirwaiz Umar Farooq.
Geelani had resigned from chairmanship, citing failure of members of groups agitating against the revocation of Article 370 on August 5 last year.
In his resignation letter, Geelani had also cited corruption in admissions of Kashmiri students through Hurriyat Conference leaders in medical colleges in Pakistan.
The government of Pakistan has reserved seats in medical colleges in Pakistan and Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) for Kashmiri students.
Imran Khan’s PTI government recently increased the number of admissions for Kashmiri students in Pakistani professional colleges in reaction to the Article 370 move by the Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP).
The award to Geelani comes at a time when Pakistan has raked up the Kashmir issue internationally without much success.
Geelani, who is considered a hardliner, represented Jamaat-e-Islami in the Hurriyat Conference.
However, the Jamaat withdrew his nomination from the Hurriyat Conference due to his radical views on Kashmir that didn’t suit its changed stand on the issue.
The veteran separatist then split from the Hurriyat Conference and floated his own party, the Tehreek-e-Hurriyat (TeH).
Later, the TeH and other pro-Pakistan groups like Muslim League led by Masarat Alam Bhat and others, floated Hurriyat Conference (G). Geelani was made the group’s lifetime chairman.
After the 2010 separatist agitation, the two factions of the Hurriyat Conference, along with JKLF led by Yasin Malik, formed Joint Resistance Leadership to carry forward the separatist politics.
The JRLF became a formidable force and led the 2016 uprising sparked by the killing of popular Hizbul Mujahideen commander Burhan Muzaffar Wani.
However, in 2018, the NIA arrested several key leaders of JRLF on charges of receiving funds to foment terror in Kashmir. Most of them continue to be in custody and are facing trial in NIA courts, including Malik who was arrested in 2019 after the collapse of the BJP-PDP coalition in J&K.
Pakistan has taken several symbolic steps to support the separatists in Kashmir. The name of the country’s main highway, Kashmir highway, was recently renamed Srinagar highway.
On August 5, Khan addresses the joint session of PoK assembly in Muzaffarabad and pledged to continue supporting the separatists in Kashmir.
Among all the separatists, Geelani earned the most respect of the people and the government of Pakistan for his tough stand on Kashmir.
His resignation citing corruption in MBBS admission, however, blew up in the face of his own two granddaughters studying medicine in Pakistan.
Geelani’s resignation raised many questions on Kashmir. Many believe the move is the handiwork of his two sons, Nayeem Geelani and Naseem Geelani, who are not comfortable with their father’s politics.