Islamabad: Pakistan Foreign Office Tuesday categorically rejected preposterous remarks made by the Official Spokesperson of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) to politicize the China- Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
Foreign Ministry Spokesperson Asim Iftikhar hailed the CPEC as a “harbinger of stability”, adding that it provides a vehicle for the people of the region to break from zero-sum approaches.
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China’s investment in CPEC has helped Pakistan overcome the energy and infrastructural bottlenecks that once constrained growth and development. Attempts to cast aspersions over the CPEC show “India’s insecurity” and the pursuit of a hegemonic agenda that has held back socio-economic development in South Asia for decades.
While rejecting India’s fallacious assertion that the CPEC impinges Pakistan’s “sovereignty and territorial integrity”, the spokesperson pointed out that it was India that had been illegally occupying the state of Jammu & Kashmir for over seven decades, perpetrating gross and widespread human rights violations and effectuating blatant territorial and demographic changes in the occupied territory in complete contravention of international law and relevant UNSC resolutions.
The statement said that India’s attempts to mislead the international community about the status of Jammu and Kashmir and to hide its atrocities against the Kashmiri people would never succeed.
It further cautioned India to desist from falsehoods and baseless claims over a territory it continues to occupy through brute force.
“The Jammu and Kashmir dispute remains an internationally recognized dispute on the UN agenda, and its solution lies in the exercise of the right of self-determination in accordance with the relevant UN Security Council resolutions and the wishes of the Kashmiri people,” the statement said.
