FM urges world community to play role in just resolution of Kashmir dispute

ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mehmood Qureshi on Wednesday urged the world community, including the United Nations and the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), to play their role in the just and peaceful resolution of the longstanding Jammu and Kashmir dispute.

He was addressing the International Parliamentary Kashmir Conference on the eve of Human Rights Day.

The foreign minister also appealed to the Muslim countries to use their political influence and economic clout to prevent India from committing atrocities in the illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

The Kashmiris, he added, were continuously being subjected to a brutal military siege and inhuman restrictions.

Deploring the state-sponsored terrorism and crimes against humanity by the Indian occupation forces against the people of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), Quresh urged the world powers to pressurize India to adhere to its international human rights obligations.

Counting the efforts to highlight the Kashmir issue at international level, he said through its successful foreign policy and narrative building efforts, Pakistan had successfully countered the Indian narrative on terrorism and Kashmir.

The world was no longer buying the Indian narrative on Kashmir blindly due to Pakistan's efforts, he added.

He urged the Pakistani expatriate community to play their role vibrantly to highlight Indian atrocities throughout the world.

He also stressed on promoting parliamentary diplomacy to highlight the Kashmir dispute.

Reiterating Pakistan's support, Foreign Minister Qureshi said Pakistan would never abandon the Kashmiri people and would continue supporting their just struggle for inalienable right to self-determination.

It may be metioned here that the Universal Declaration of Human Rights is a milestone document that proclaimed the inalienable rights which everyone was entitled to as a human being – regardless of race, colour, religion, sex, language, political or other status.

White colour in the National Flag of Pakistan depicts the rightful place of minorities in the country.

Restoration of Hindu temples and opening of the Kartarpur Corridor represents Pakistan’s approach towards protecting the rights of religious minorities.

Whereas, in India not only Muslims, Sikhs and Christians are kept deprived of basic rights but low caste Hindus are also suffering from the atrocities of Brahman Hindus as well.

Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi has bulldozed major liberal and pro minorities’ movements in recent past; for example the sanctioning of Citizen Amendment Act (CAA), National Register of Citizens (NRC) and abrogation of articles 370 and 35 A in the IIOJK.

The Indian government has converted the IIOJK into world’s biggest jail, while keeping the Kashmiri people deprived of basic rights followed by illegal detentions and murder of innocent youth.

Recent repatriation of Pakistani Hindus from India also shows that no relief is being provided to Hindus also, rather there is a rhetoric based on the Hindutva ideology generated from RSS (Rashtriya Swayamsevak Sangh) terrorists.