UN chief wants meaningful Pakistan-India dialogue

UNITED NATIONS: The United Nations Secretary General, Antonio Guterres, has said he hopes to soon see Islamabad and New Delhi engage in a meaningful dialogue to resolve their disputes.

The UN chief’s comments came in response to a question by a Pakistani journalist at a press conference in New York on Friday night.

Speaking about New Delhi’s failure to positively respond to Islamabad’s recent offers for talks, Guterres expressed willingness to facilitate any future Pak-India peace talks.

“I’ve been offering my good offices in relation to the dialogue between the two countries that, until now, had no conditions of success,” he said, adding, “The importance of India and Pakistan is such in international affairs, I hope that the two countries will be able to engage in a meaningful dialogue.”

On India’s atrocities in the Indian Held Kashmir (IHK), Guterres said the UN had clearly done its job, as he referred to last year’s damning UN report that calls for a ‘commission of inquiry’ to investigate the grave human rights violations in the held valley.

“The Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights has produced recently a very detailed report. So, the UN has clearly done its job in that regard,” the UN secretary general said.

Azad Jammu and Kashmir President Sardar Masood Khan lauded the statement of the UN secretary general and said that dialogue was the only way to resolve the Kashmir issue.

Sardar Masood said Pakistan and the people of Azad Jammu and Kashmir have always supported to settle the Kashmir issue through dialogue. He welcomed the statement of Antonio Guterres in which he expressed the hope that Pakistan and India would be able to engage in a meaningful dialogue to resolve their disputes

“Attention of the head of international organisation towards the deteriorating human rights situation in IHK is the reflection of international community’s wish to settle this serious issue through peaceful means,” the AJK president said.

Meanwhile, Hurriyat forum Chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq urged the United Nations to take immediate action to implement the recommendations of its Human Rights Commissioner report that called for a probe into human rights violations in the IHK.

In a statement issued from Srinagar, he said the people of Kashmir welcome the report on grave human rights violations in IHK and asked the UN chief to take immediate steps to implement its recommendations.