ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari held a telephone conversation, Thursday, with OIC Secretary General Hissein Brahim Taha, to apprise him of the latest situation in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) in the wake of the report of the so-called “Delimitation Commission” in the occupied territory.
According to a statement of the Foreign Office, the foreign minister while dismissing the report as another outrageous attempt by India at political gerrymandering stated that by redrawing electoral boundaries blatantly favouring the Hindu-dominated constituencies, the so-called “Delimitation Commission” has validated the worst fears of the Kashmiri people that the BJP Government in India sought to disempower and disenfranchise them by altering the demographic structure of the IIOJK with a view to converting the Muslim majority into a minority.
The foreign minister said this illegal and farcical attempt was in contravention of the relevant UN Security Council resolutions, international law, and the 4th Geneva Convention which imposes certain obligations on occupying powers including not to change the demographic structure of the occupied territories. Pakistan and the Kashmiris categorically rejected it, he added.
Commending the OIC’s long-standing and principled position on the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, the foreign minister noted that the various resolutions and declarations including those adopted during the 48th Session of the Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) in Islamabad in March 2022 unequivocally rejected the illegal and unilateral Indian actions of 5 August 2019 and all subsequent steps, to perpetuate its occupation of the IIOJK.
The foreign minister said that in its capacity as the CFM Chair, Pakistan will continue to sensitize the international community of the plight of the long-suffering Kashmiri people.
The OIC Secretary-General reaffirmed steadfast support to the just struggle of the Kashmiris for their inalienable right to self-determination, in accordance with relevant UN Security Council and OIC resolutions, and the wishes of the Kashmiri people.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022
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