Pakistan will continue to sensitize int’l community on India’s blatant violations of int’l law & UNSC resolutions: FO Spokesperson
ISLAMABAD, July 22 (SABAH): Foreign Office Spokesperson Asim Iftikhar Ahmad has said that India’s sinister design of altering the demographic composition of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) in order to forcefully convert the Muslim majority into minority will never succeed. Pakistan will continue to sensitize the international community on India’s blatant violations of international law and UNSC resolutions.
This was stated by FO Spokesperson Asim Iftikhar Ahmad during a weekly press briefing on Friday. FO spokesperson said that the Secretary General of the Shanghai Cooperation Organization (SCO), Ambassador Zhang Ming, is currently visiting Pakistan from 21-24 July.
He said that the Secretary General has a busy schedule. He has had meetings with the Ministers of Commerce, Climate Change, Information Technology and Maritime Affairs. He called on Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari earlier on Friday for an extensive exchange of views. He will also be calling on the Prime Minister Mian Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif. The SG also spoke at the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad (ISSI). He will also engage with business leaders and entrepreneurs.
He said that the visit of the SCO Secretary General provides an opportunity to engage with the SCO Secretariat and highlight our perspective and priorities for making the SCO mechanisms more effective in advancing shared regional security and economic goals.
He said that Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari will also be participating in the SCO Council of Foreign Ministers meeting in Tashkent next week (28-29 July).
FO Spokesperson Asim Iftikhar Ahmad said that as we approach 3 years of Indian illegal and unilateral actions of 5 August 2019 in IIOJK, and subsequent unprecedented and unabated repression and human rights violations in IIOJK, the Government and people of Pakistan continue to stand resolutely with our Kashmiri brothers and sisters in their just struggle for self-determination and freedom from illegal Indian occupation.
He said that on 13th July, the government and people of Pakistan solemnly observed the 91st Youm-e-Shuhada-e-Kashmir (Kashmir Martyrs’ Day) and paid homage to the 22 Kashmiri martyrs who rendered the ultimate sacrifice while braving the indiscriminate force unleashed on them in 1931 by the Dogra forces.
He said that in a historic commemoration, on 19 July, the Government and people of Pakistan joined the Kashmiris on both sides of the Line of Control (LoC) to mark the 75th anniversary of Kashmir’s Accession to Pakistan. As the Kashmiris renewed their resolve to persevere in their demand for self-determination, Pakistan once again urges India to immediately halt its state-terrorism in the IIOJK, cease the human rights violations, release all political prisoners, lift the inhuman military siege and let the people of Kashmir exercise their right to self-determination.
He said that India must realize that no amount of brutality and human rights violations can dissuade the Kashmiris and their leadership – their true representatives – from pursuing their just cause that is sanctioned by the United Nations and strengthened by international legitimacy.
FO spokesperson said that Pakistan strongly condemns India’s recent move of implicating Hurriyat leader Muhammad Yasin Malik in two more fictitious cases, which have been crafted around incidents that took place more than thirty years ago and have been reopened. He said that regrettably, Yasin Malik is also being denied the right of personal appearance in the ongoing trial, in complete contravention of legal and democratic norms. Left with no legal recourse and faced with blatant denial of his rights, yasin. Malik has taken the desperate decision of going on a hunger strike unto death from 22 July 2022.
Asim Iftikhar Ahmad said that Pakistan urges the international community to hold India, the serial violator of human rights, responsible for its brazen suppression of the innocent Kashmiris, and to play its due role in ensuring a just and peaceful resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in accordance with the relevant UN Security Council resolutions and the wishes of the Kashmiri people.