Resolution of Kashmir issue imperative for regional peace: NA Speaker

ISLAMABAD: Speaker National Assembly Asad Qaiser on Thursday said that the resolution of Kashmir issue was essential for peace and stability in the region.

Expressing his views about the Kashmir Solidarity Day which is being marked on February 5, Speaker said that the use of brutal force against unarmed Kashmiris in Indian Illegaly occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) could neither crush their independence movement nor change the principled position of Pakistan on Kashmir.

He said that curfew has been imposed in occupied Kashmir for the last one and half years due to which the people were deprived of their basic rights.

Speaker also expressed concern that there was a shortage of medicines and food due to the curfew and lockdown imposed since long , which could lead to severe catastrophe. He urged the United Nations to take notice of the ongoing barbarism by India in IIOJK and stop India from gross violations of human rights and also put pressue on India to implrmrt UNSC resolutions on Kashmir .

The Speaker warned that the silence of the international community on the Kashmir issue could be a prelude to a major war in the region.

Highlighting Pakistan's support and principled stand for the struggle of the Kashmiri people for independence, the Speaker said that the Pakistani government and people would continue to provide moral, political and diplomatic support to the Kashmiri people in their just struggle for self-determination at every forum.

He said that the Parliament of Pakistan is committed to the peaceful resolution of the Kashmir issue as it has always emphasized to resolve the Kashmir issue in accordance with the resolutions of the UN Security Council and to stop the atrocities committed by Indian forces in the occupied valley.

He reiterated parliamentary support on every international and regional forums for the resolution of Kashmir issue. He said that the forcible occupation of Kashmir by India was against the moral values of modern society and the basic right of the people to self-determination.

The Speaker urged the United Nations to implement its resolutions on Kashmir and put pressure on India to stop using brutal force.

He expressed the hope that people of occupied Kashmir would witness the dawn of freedom and the people there would be able to live in a peaceful environment.