NEW YORK: Caretaker Minister for Foreign Affairs Jalil Abbas Jilani on Friday said that neither the United Nations nor any other country in the world accepted the Indian claim on the core dispute of Jammu and Kashmir between Pakistan and India.
The foreign minister, addressing a news conference after caretaker Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar’s address at the UN General Assembly, said even the United Nations’ map did not show Kashmir as an integral part of India as the country had been claiming for a long time.
Asked about a spat between Canada and India over the killing of a Sikh leader, he said the South Asian countries, including Pakistan, had also been a victim of the assassinations originating from India.
“For the first time, this has gone global. India will have to come clean on this… This is the mask coming off on the Indian face,” the foreign minister added.
Apprising the media of the prime minister as well as his engagements in New York, Foreign Minister Jilani said they had a series of bilateral meetings with their counterparts and also attended multiple sessions on varying subjects. He said the meetings of OIC Contact Groups on Kashmir and Palestine were also held wherein Pakistan highlighted its efforts for peace and stability, besides highlighting the Jammu and Kashmir dispute.
To a question, the foreign minister said that during the interactions in New York, they had got no impression that the people of Palestine were being abandoned by the OIC countries. Rather, the meetings reiterated their support and called for the solution of the issue as per the United Nations Security Council resolutions. -He said the steps taken by India on August 5, 2019 further denied to the Kashmiri people their rights. The attempts to change the demography of IIOJK was a matter of great concern for Pakistan as well as the people of Kashmir.
The foreign minister told the media that Pakistan, along with the like-minded countries, had developed a consensus at COP27 and established the Climate Finance Fund. About the outcomes of the donors’ conference held in Geneva, he said the UN Secretary-General would convene a meeting on September 27, where the representatives from the donor countries would present a report about the actualisation of commitments. He said Pakistan was carrying out the rehabilitation work from its own resources with the banks extending easy-term loans but the banks also had limited resources. “We are hopeful that most of the promises will be fulfilled shortly,” he remarked.
Regarding the debate on the UNSC reforms, Foreign Minister Jilani said there was a consensus in the international community that there was no need for adding another elite member or group to the UNSC. To a question, he said Pakistan expected the interim Afghan government to act against all groups carrying out terror activities inside Pakistan. He said Pakistan had a very good dialogue with Afghan authorities, including at the recently held meeting of the joint commission. The Afghan side is also committed to not allowing its soil for terror activities, he added.
