Not attending OIC moot: Qureshi

ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi will not participate in the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers but ‘lower level diplomats’ will represent Pakistan, the Foreign Office announced on Friday.

Pakistan says invitation to the Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj was sent without consultation.

Pakistan says it is supported on the issue by Turkey and Iran, and it will oppose any bid to grant the observer’s status to India in the OIC.

"I have decided that I will not attend the Council of Foreign Ministers. But we have 19 pending resolutions in the Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) and several of them concern brutalities against Kashmiris. So to ensure that Pakistan’s resolutions are represented, our lower level officials will be present there. In case, India is offered the observer’s status, they will oppose it on Pakistan’s behalf,” Qureshi said. The 46th session of the OIC Council of Foreign Ministers is taking place in Abu Dhabi on March 1-2 March. India has been invited to the inaugural plenary.

The Foreign Office said India was a country that had unresolved disputes with Pakistan, a founding member of the OIC. It added that India was also responsible for horrendous human rights violations in the occupied Jammu & Kashmir.

“India has consistently rejected the OIC resolutions on the Jammu & Kashmir dispute adopted at the OIC Foreign Ministers and Summit levels. Only last year, India rejected the OIC resolutions on Jammu & Kashmir by stating that “India dismisses it with the contempt it deserves,” it added.

Pakistan believes with such a record, India has no legal or moral grounds to be present in the meeting.

“Pakistan’s strong objections in this regard have been clearly communicated,” said the Foreign Office.

Earlier Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi wrote to his counterpart in the UAE and expressed displeasure at the OIC invitation to India’s minister of internal affairs.

He wrote, “In continuation of my letter of 26 February, 2019 in which we conveyed our complete surprise on the invitation extended to Minister for External Affairs of India to the Inaugural Plenary of the 46th Session of the Council of Foreign Ministers and Pakistan’s rejection of this move”.

The letter further said the “invitation was extended without consulting with member states and contrary to the rules of the OIC.”

The foreign minister said Pakistan’s concerns were also in line with the “agreements related to observer and member status of the Organization which only allow countries that have resolved conflicts with the OIC member states to have these privileges.”

He said, “India having conflict with at least one founding member state, as well as its treatment of minorities, especially Muslims, is eminently disqualified from any association with the OIC.”

The letter further highlighted recent acts of Indian aggression against Pakistan and said its treatment of Kashmiris in the Indian Held Jammu Kashmir had been despicable. In this backdrop, the presence of India at the CFM Plenary is all the more unacceptable.

"I requested them to review the decision; the UAE said that when we extended the invitation, Pulwama had not occurred. If it had, case would have been different. Now we have extended invitation and it would be hard to retract but they would still consult,” Qureshi told Parliament.

He also briefed Parliament on his conversation with the UAE Crown Prince Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan and said, “He said the invitation was extended before the Pulwama attack. But the crown prince showed the willingness to rethink the decision.”