Politics

Voice of Kashmiris heard in rare UNSC meeting on Kashmir: Pakistan

Published

5 years ago

August 16, 2019

Editor

The UN Security Council Friday discussed the “dangerous” situation in Indian occupied Kashmir (IoK) for the first time in over 50 years at Pakistan’s request, with China’s top diplomat saying afterwards that the 15-member body’s members voiced concern over violations of human rights situation in the disputed state and urged an end to the lockdown.

Speaking to reporters after nearly two hours of close consultations, Chinese Ambassador Zhang Jun also said the Council members also expressed the view that the Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan should be resolved peacefully through negotiations based on UN Security Council resolutions and the Charter.

He said the Council members generally felt that India and Pakistan should refrain from unilateral actions in Kashmir. The situation in Jammu and Kashmir, he said, was “already tense and very dangerous”.

The fact that the Security Council discussed Kashmir exclusively for the first time in over 50 years is seen here as failure of India to stop such a meeting. The last such discussion was in 1965.

“The voice of the Kashmiri people has been heard,” Pakistan’s Ambassador to the UN Maleeha Lodhi, who received briefings from some Council members, told reporters at the stake out. “Their voice has been heard in the highest international forum,”

“This belies India’s claims of support in the Council and it nullifies its propaganda that Jammu and Kashmir was an internal matter,” she said, adding that it again confirmed the international status of the dispute.

Discussions in the meeting, she said, also reaffirmed that the Security Council resolutions on Jammu and Kashmir, which call for a plebiscite, were alive and remained central to the resolution of the dispute, while also reinforcing what the OIC, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, international human rights organizations, and above all the UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres had said about the deteriorating human rights situation in occupied Kashmir.

“The consensus in the Security Council for a peaceful settlement of the dispute is a clear endorsement of Pakistan’s position that this is an international dispute which must be resolved by political means and not by unilateral coercive means,” Ambassador Lodhi said.

Politics

Speaker of Russian Federal Assembly to arrive in Islamabad today

Published

2 months ago

October 27, 2024

EDITOR

Speaker of the Federation Council of the Federal Assembly of the Russian Federation Valentina Matvienko will arrive in Islamabad for three day official visit today.

This visit is expected to mark a pivotal moment in the growing diplomatic and parliamentary ties between the two nations.

During her stay, Valentina Matvienko is scheduled to meet with President Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif besides addressing a special session of the Senate tomorrow.

This visit, featuring significant discussions and strategic engagements, underscores the commitment of both nations to fostering stronger relations.

Politics

Kashmiris observing Black Day today

Published

2 months ago

October 27, 2024

EDITOR

Kashmiris on both sides of the Line of Control and the world over are observing Black Day today to send a message of rejecting India’s illegal occupation of their homeland.

It was on October 27, 1947 that Indian troops invaded Jammu and Kashmir in blatant violation of the Partition Plan and occupied region against the will of the Kashmiri people.

The day is being marked by a complete shutdown in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

Protest marches, rallies, and seminars will be held in Pakistan and across the globe.

In Azad Kashmir, protest marches, rallies and seminars will also be held at all the Districts and Tehsil headquarters to condemn the Indian Army’s invasion on October 27, 1947 and the revocation of the special status of IIOJK by the BJP-led Hindutva government of India.

In the state capital Muzaffarabad, Kashmir Liberation Commission has arranged a protest demonstration followed by a rally.

Similarly, Pasban-e-Hurriyat Jammu and Kashmir, Kashmiri Refugees, other Hurriyat organizations and political and religious parties have arranged anti-India rallies and seminars to observe the Black Day.

President AJK Barrister Sultan Mahmood Chaudhry and Prime Minister Ch Anwarul Haq have appealed Kashmiris all over the world to register their protest against India.

Politics

BRICS to invite more countries to join as partners

Published

2 months ago

October 24, 2024

EDITOR

Chinese President Xi Jinping says BRICS summit has decided to invite a number of nations to become partner countries.

Addressing the summit in Kazan, Russia, Xi hailed the decision as another important development in the course of BRICS development.

Chinese President said enlargement of BRICS is a major milestone in its development history.

Xi urged BRICS countries to promote an immediate ceasefire in Gaza and make unremitting efforts toward a comprehensive, just and lasting resolution of the Palestinian question.