Islamabad
President Dr. Arif Alvi on Thursday while reiterating Pakistan’s firm stance of political, diplomatic, and moral support for the people of IIOJK, resolved that the country would not allow the international community to forget the Kashmir dispute.
Addressing a seminar “Pakistan Stands with Kashmir”, the president said the world community must play a role to pressure India to end human rights abuses like killings, curbs on freedom of expression, and assembly.
Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, National Security Advisor Moeed Yousuf, Kashmiri leader Mushal Mullick, Institute of Strategic Studies (ISS) Director-General Ambassador Aizaz Chaudhry, and diplomats from various countries also addressed the event organized here at the Aiwan-e-Sadr by ISS and National Security Division.
The president said the Kashmir Solidarity Day was aimed at commemorating the sacrifices by the people of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) and made the world recall the promises made to them.
Calling the implementation of the United Nations Security Council’s resolutions as the only solution, the president said the responsibility lied with the international community as the issue was related to human lives.
Referring to the multiple UN resolutions guaranteeing the right to self-determination to the Kashmiri people, the president said Kashmir would have been liberated had Jawahar Lal Nehru not approached the UN for a ceasefire because, since the beginning, the Kashmiris had been resisting the Indian occupation. But, he said, India moved away from its international responsibility, usurping the fundamental rights of the Kashmir people.
Even while unilaterally revoking Article 370 of its constitution, on August 5, 2019, he said, India had committed that it would not change the status of population and properties owned by the Kashmiris. Contrary to that, 900,000 troops were deployed in the territory to suppress eight million people, he added.
New domiciles were being given to the loyal people of Hindutva to change the demographic structure of the IIOJK, Dr. Alvi said.
The president said Prime Minister Imran Khan had committed that if India took one step forward, Pakistan would take two for peace but the former moved to the opposite side.
Even following the Pulwama incident, he said, the Modi government tried to make aggression against Pakistan just to attract anti-Pakistan votes.
He thanked UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres, who called for peaceful resolution of the dispute and urged the attending diplomats to appraise their respective governments of what India had been doing in the IIOJK.
Urging the media to highlight the Indian atrocities in Kashmir, the president demanded India to allow international media and the UN observers to the territory, just like Pakistan did in Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said on August 5, 2019, India had deluded that the Kashmiri people would accept its actions as their fate, it would hoodwink the entire international community and it would be successful in depriving the Kashmiris of their right to self-determination forever.—APP
