Kashmir Global Council

KGC announces phase-wise ‘Kashmir Senate’ formation

New York City, 20 July 2020: Kashmir Global Council (KGC), an independent political advocacy organization with Board of Directors in USA and Canada, will conduct online deliberations and nominations with the goal of forming a Kashmir Senate – the representatives of which will come from all the districts of the  State of Jammu & Kashmir.

Statement from the 2019 KGC conference that led to the decision of Kashmir Senate formation can be found here: Kashmir Senate Proposed – 2019 NYC convention

Due to Covid-19 pandemic, KGC postponed its Dallas Conference for Senate formation from 28th March 2020 to 13th July 2020 (Kashmir Martyrs’ Day). In view of the ongoing travel restrictions and public health challenges, KGC will now hold online deliberations for the Senate formation.

In a meeting of KGC Board of Directors on 3rd July 2020, it was decided that Kashmir Senate formation will take place in phased manner across all regions of the  state (Kashmir Valley, Jammu, Azad Jammu & Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan, and Ladakh).

  1. In the 1st phase, the nominations for Senate will be received from each district of the State. This will be a grass-roots process where each nominee will have to qualify with the backing of certain number of delegates from their district.
  2. In the 2nd phase, online deliberations will be held with all nominees to align to common goals and policies. This will be organized via our major cities – Srinagar, Jammu, Muzaffarabad, Gilgit, and Leh.
  3. In the 3rd phase, the names of Senators will be made public. Due to safety and security concerns in Indian-controlled Kashmir, some names may be withheld from public until the Senators give their voluntary consent.

If the designated seats for each district are not filled, the nominations will stay open until all seats are filled. KGC will send periodic updates on the developments of the formation of the Senate.

All those who had accepted invitations to the postponed March 2020 Dallas Conference will be automatically invited to these online deliberations as well as future physical sitting of the Senate in Dallas, USA when travel restrictions are lifted.

KGC envisions the Kashmir Senate to be independent of any governmental allegiances, including but not limited to the governments of India, Pakistan, and China. The goal of the Senate is to create a collective representative character for the entire State of Jammu & Kashmir as it stood in 1947 before its occupation. The idea behind the Kashmir Senate is to promote ‘Kashmir First’.