Pakistan not to be drawn into war talk, says Maleeha

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Dr Maleeha Lodhi on Thursday said that Pakistan would not be drawn into the war talk as any such words between the two nuclear powers would be irrational.

“India has been beating the war drum in response to the diplomatic pressure (on prevailing human rights situation in Kashmir). We don’t think any such threat of war is imminent. Any such notion between two nuclear powers will be irrational,” Dr Maleeha said talking to a private television channel.

She said neither Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif used any word of war in his speech at the UN General Assembly nor Pakistan desired so. She said during his interaction with world leaders in New York on sidelines of the UN General Assembly’s 71st session, the prime minister raised the issue of grave human rights violations in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK), asking them to take steps to stop those brutalities.

Dr Lodhi said Pakistan never desired to escalate the situation rather always desired to resolve the issues peacefully. She said as the next step Pakistan would approach the members of the United Nations Security Council, though a dossier had already been presented to the UN Secretary General on the Kashmir situation. “When the prime minister handed over the dossier to Ban Ki-moon and showed him two pages containing the images of two blinded children and women (by pellet guns used by Indian forces), the secretary general was visibly shaken and shocked,” she remarked.

The ambassador said in response to the very diplomatic measures taken by Pakistan, India resorted to war talk. She said the situation in IOK was getting severe with increasing number of killings and unending curfew.

She said the UN secretary general had once again offered to mediate on the Kashmir issue. The prime minister also urged the international powers to take stock of the situation and seek peaceful solution to the dispute to extend fundamental rights of self-determination to the Kashmiri people.

To a question on Indian claims of isolating Pakistan, the ambassador said the prime minister met the prime ministers of China and UK, president of Iran and Saudi Crown Prince in New York which manifested the Indian failure.

Maleeha Lodhi said Pakistan had also given a rejoinder to the Indian response to the prime minister's speech at the UNGA in which Pakistan’s representative told the world body that India had been trying to cover up the brutalities in IOK. She said during his meeting with Prime Minister Sharif, Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan, as chair of the Human Rights Commission of the of OIC, offered to send a fact finding commission to Occupied Kashmir.