US-Arab-Islamic summit: FO says PM could not address due to lack of time

ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office on Thursday dismissed the claim that Saudi Arabia did not provide Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif a chance to address the recent international summit held in Riyadh.

“Leaders from 30 countries could not address the international Islamic summit due to lack of time,” Nafees Zakaria said during weekly media briefing here. In this connection, Saudi King Shah Salman had apologised to all the participants who were not able to address the summit.

He termed the news of Indian victory of Kulbhushan Jadhav's case in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) as incorrect and misleading.

"We are prepared for the next hearing of the case,” Nafees Zakaria added.

He said the ICJ order was a provisional order to stay the execution.

To a question regarding ceasefire violation by the Indian forces at LoC during the visit of United Nations Military Observer Group Team, the FO spokesman said the team was mandated by the United Nations Security Council Resolution. He added the observer team has prepared the report accordingly and submitted it to their head office.

He said the issue of Occupied Kashmir is on the UN agenda for the last 70 years.

Zakaria said giving an award to Major Leetul Gogoi, who brazenly used a Kashmiri youth as a human shield, is condemnable. It is a crime and an insult to humanity, he added.

He said the Amnesty International had called 'awarding' a move to condone human rights abuses in IoK.

Speaking about the Saudi Arabia military coalition, the spokesman said, "We have already made our position very clear, however, the term of reference (TRO) are yet to be worked out”.