David Williams

It is a pleasure to serve under your chairmanship, Sir Roger. I congratulate my hon. Friend the Member for Bradford East (Imran Hussain) on securing this vital debate and on his leadership. Many of us present spoke in this place about human rights violations back in March, so I am pleased that we are taking seriously the need to carry on a sustained conversation on this pressing matter. The situation in Jammu and Kashmir was brought to my attention by a number of local councillors, including Majid Khan, Amjid Wazir, Javid Najmi and Waseem Akbar, and others such as Matloob Butt from Tunstall. I pay tribute to the community leaders who work tirelessly to raise awareness of a crisis that too often fails to make it into the media. When I spend time listening to members of our Kashmiri community, the message is so clear: our words have simply not been enough. Stoke-on-Trent North and Kidsgrove is home to a large Kashmiri community who are deeply concerned about the conflict. Their family ties to the region are at once a huge source of pride and a profound concern. Many of my constituents spend their day-to-day lives knowing that their family members are experiencing ongoing restrictions on civil liberties, arbitrary detentions and a denial of meaningful political determination. Over the past year, the Labour Government have demonstrated a renewed confidence on the world stage as a serious diplomatic power. It is my duty as a Member of Parliament to speak in solidarity with my constituents, and to urge our Labour Government to use their influence to take tangible action to promote self-determination in Jammu and Kashmir. Acknowledging the crisis is not enough. We can no longer pretend that conversation and debate alone can resolve this decades-long struggle. Now is the time to take seriously our role in resolving the conflict and take real, practical steps towards bringing about long-term peace and stability in the region.