Dar emphasises OIC’s role for resolution of Kashmir issue

DUBAI: Finance Minister Ishaq Dar has said the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), as a body of 57 states with the world’s one fifth population and several trillion dollars GDP, can effectively urge India to fulfil its obligations under the UN resolutions for resolving the Kashmir issue.
Addressing a seminar organised by the Pakistan Consulate in Dubai in connection with Kashmir Solidarity Day, Ishaq Dar said the Muslim World’s representative body has been consistently supportive of the Kashmiris’ movement for self determination and constantly expressed concerns over the human rights violations through numerous resolutions.
According to a press release, the minister said Kashmir is a long standing dispute on the UN agenda, adding that despite lapse of 66 years, the UN Security Council Resolutions, which promised Kashmiris’ right to self determination through a plebiscite under the UN auspices, remains unimplemented. He said non-resolution of this dispute has added to the miseries of the people of the Indian Held Kashmir as more than 700,000 Indian security forces continue to suppress their movement for self determination.
The minister said that no elections could ever be a substitute to the plebiscite promised in the UN Security Council resolutions, to be conducted under a UN-monitored arrangement. “The Kashmiris look towards the international community, particularly the major powers and the Muslim Ummah, for support to their legitimate cause,” Dar emphasised.
He categorically stated that only the resolution of Kashmir dispute can ensure durable peace in the region and progress and prosperity for the 1.7 billion poverty-stricken people in the South Asian region. The minister at the conclusion of the seminar also offered dua along with other participants for the success of Kashmiri brethren in their just struggle for the right to self determination.