The very complicated-looking Kashmir Issue which has been hanging in the balance for the last about six decades, can surely be solved within three months to reasonable satisfaction of all concerned i.e. India, Pakistan, Kashmiri people and the international community. The only proviso to that is that the governments of India and Pakistan abandon their present selfish, cruel, expansionist and colonialist approach to Kashmir issue and, behaving like civilized nations believing in the values of justice, equity and morality, fulfill the pledges that they had given to Kashmiris, to each other, and to the world, the pledge of letting Kashmiris themselves determine their future. This proviso will be made easier if Kashmiri leadership on both sides of LoC, instead of acting as pets and puppets of India or/and Pakistan, act as Kashmiri patriots and also if international community, per its pledges given under UN SC resolutions specially the unanimous resolution No 1172 of 6th June 1998.persuade and facilitate India and Pakistan to honour their pledges.
There are two ways India and Pakistan can honor their pledges. One way would be to let the divided Jammu Kashmir State be reunited after withdrawal from the State of all Indian and Pakistani civil and military personnel, and the reunited State made a fully independent State with a democratic, federal and secular system of government and having compulsory friendly relations with all its neighbours specially with India and Pakistan. There be agreements of peaceful coexistence between Kashmir and all its neighbours. This process will take a couple of months at the most. To make the solution strictly democratic, let the government of independent Kashmir pledge publicly that it will let a free and impartial referendum be held in the State after a set period of time and under international auspices to let Kashmiris determine whether Kashmir should perpetuate its independence, become part of India or Pakistan or adopt any other course and that popular verdict be accepted by all concerned as final settlement, of the Issue and implemented. The first and the basic phase, withdrawal of foreign civil and military personal, reunification and independence of the State is not going to take more than two months since administrative setup exists in all the three administrative units of the State i.e. Indian administered area, Pakistan administered area (Gilgit Baltistan) and Azad Kashmir. A new administrative setup will have to be created at the center which will not be very difficult. All the three legislative bodies put together will form the first National Assembly which will elect the central government.
The other way to solve the Issue within three months will be to hold a plebiscite or a referendum in the re-united State after withdrawal of all Indian and Pakistani armed and civil personnel, to determine the future of the State. That would be under UN auspices or otherwise. That referendum will not take long as electoral lists are already in existence in all the three parts of the State. Other administrative details can be sorted out by consultation between the representatives of Indian and Pakistani governments and Kashmiri leadership. All that cannot take more than three months.
As they say, where there is a will there is a way. If India, Pakistan, Kashmiri leadership and International community see reason and act the way suggested earlier. Kashmir issue can easily be solved within a few months and that solution can also herald the dawn of a peaceful and prosperous future for the entire region inhabited by over one fifth of humanity. But if India and Pakistan continue their present behavior, neither can the Issue be solved nor can the two nations remain in peace or gain the otherwise deserved prosperity and respect in the comity of nations. If full justice is not done to Kashmir, it will continue eating into the vitals of both of them and may well cause their destruction. That is the clear writing on the world.