NA regrets pulling back to host CPC

ISLAMABAD: The National Assembly of Pakistan regretted on Thursday to announce its decision to pull back as host of the 61st Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference as a consequence of the Emergency Tele-Conference of the Executive Committee of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association.

The Emergency Tele-Conference( ETC) of the Executive Committee of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association was held here, said the office of the Speaker National Assembly.

It may be recalled that Speaker National Assembly Sardar Ayaz Sadiq was unanimously elected as the President of the CPA in October 2014 in Cameroon on the occasion of the 60th CPC.

Earlier on this part, Pakistan had agreed to host the Conference when Speaker Sardar Ayaz Sadiq was personally approached by the late Secretary General of the CPA Dr. William F. Shija.

He had informed the Speaker of the Association's difficulties in finding hosts for the annual conferences and had pleaded Pakistan's Parliament to take up the responsibility.

As an emerging democracy, Pakistan's National Assembly had agreed to accept the request with a view to strengthen democracy, dialogue and cooperation among the developing countries of the Commonwealth.

However, at no point had the elected Parliament of Pakistan shown even a distant sign of flexibility on its principled and historic stand on Jammu and Kashmir. The unsettled dispute remains the flash-point for regional peace and stability and is very much alive on the United Nations' agenda.

There are outstanding UN Security Council's Resolutions on Jammu and Kashmir, which call for the Kashmiris' right to self- determination through a free and impartial plebiscite under the UN auspices.

The relevant UNSC Resolutions rule out any alternative to Plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir as a possible disposition of this issue. In addition, the Parliament of Pakistan, especially the National Assembly has also passed numerous unanimous resolutions, calling for the right of self-determination for the people of Jammu and Kashmir.

Although the Parliament of Pakistan could not host the 61st CPC, however this occasion has enabled Pakistan to once again highlight the Kashmir dispute as the unfinished agenda of the 1947 partition and remind the world community, especially the 52 countries of the Commonwealth, the plight of the Kashmiri people with a dire need for an amicable solution as per the aspiration of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.