The late Allama Saqib Akbar was a remarkably gracious, serious, and composed personality. He was perhaps also the Secretary General of the Milli Yakjehti Council. I used to invite him to television talk shows on religious subjects, and he was always kind enough to oblige. Over time, however, I began to realise that his expertise was not confined to religious scholarship. He possessed an extraordinary grasp of contemporary politics and international affairs as well.

One day, during a discussion on CPEC, he remarked:

“Asif Sahib, by then we may or may not still be around, but remember this. After CPEC, a time will come when India itself will say: come, let us hold a plebiscite in Kashmir. In fact, it will demand it.”

“India will agree to a plebiscite?” I asked in surprise.

“Not merely agree,” he replied. “It will actively demand one, because one of its major concerns will be the CPEC route through Gilgit Baltistan. It will seek to use the plebiscite as a means of sabotaging CPEC.”

For me, this was a startling analysis. We discussed it briefly and agreed to sit together again sometime to explore the matter further.

What matters, however, is what happened afterwards.

India revoked the special status of occupied Kashmir.

It began settling Indians there.

It started issuing domicile certificates to non Kashmiris.

It began altering the demographic composition of occupied Kashmir.

A little more time will pass, and the population ratio in occupied Kashmir will be transformed altogether.

Once this constitutional engineering........

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