Pakistan ready to hold talks with India without any precondition: Sartaj

NEW YORK: Adviser to Prime Minister on National Security (NSA) Sartaj Aziz said here on Tuesday that Pakistan is ready to hold talks with India at any level and without any preconditions in order to address each other’s concerns and establish lasting peace by resolving all outstanding issues, especially the Jammu and Kashmir dispute.
Addressing the Contact Group of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on the fringes of the ongoing UN General Assembly (UNGA) session, he said that Pakistan remains committed to finding a just and peaceful solution to the Jammu and Kashmir dispute.
Pakistan’s principled position on the Kashmir issue is based on the UN Security Council Resolutions, which still remain unimplemented.
He said that instead of upholding the inalienable right to self-determination promised to the Kashmiri people by the United Nations and to fulfill its own pledges, India decided to try to quell the Kashmiris’ struggle by use of force.
As a result, more than 90,000 Kashmiris have been killed by the Indian security forces over the last two decades in the Indian-occupied Kashmir.
He said that the Kashmiri leaders continue to remain in detention or have been put under house arrest.
The people of Indian-occupied Kashmir including women are being arrested for hoisting the national flag of Pakistan. Framing treason charges for hoisting the Pakistani flag is illegal since the Kashmiris have never accepted the Indian occupation.
India is attempting to change the demographic make-up of Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir by settling non-state, non-Muslim subjects in the occupied Jammu and Kashmir. Sartaj Aziz said that on the eve of Eid-ul-Azha, the government of occupied Kashmir imposed a ban on the slaughtering of cows with a 10-year imprisonment for violators.
He said that Pakistan is steadfast in extending political, moral and diplomatic support to the people of Kashmir in their just struggle for their inalienable right to self-determination.
“We have consistently emphasized the need for the full respect of human rights of the Kashmiris. Significantly, a number of human rights organizations, including UN Human Rights Council, OIC, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch have regularly criticized the rights’ violations in IOK.”
It has been greatly appreciated that the OIC Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission has been mandated to monitor the human rights situation in the Indian-occupied Kashmir.
Sartaj Aziz said that India continues to hold sham elections in Jammu and Kashmir, with coercive military presence. In this context, the United Nations Security Council Resolutions 91 of 1951 and 122 of 1957 reject all such solutions as a substitute to a free and impartial plebiscite for the final disposition of the State of Jammu and Kashmir.
Sartaj Aziz said that the people of Pakistan and Jammu and Kashmir deeply value the consistent support extended by the OIC for the rights of the Kashmiri people.
Regular meetings of the Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir are an expression of Islamic solidarity with the oppressed people of the Indian-occupied Kashmir.
“We firmly believe that for a durable solution of the Kashmir dispute, Kashmiris should be associated with the dialogue process.
“Pakistan supports engagement with India in a constructive and purposeful dialogue to resolve this issue. However, our efforts to peacefully resolve the Jammu and Kashmir dispute are not being reciprocated.
“This August, India cancelled the talks by setting pre-conditions to exclude Jammu and Kashmir from the agenda and prohibiting Pakistan’s interaction with the Kashmiri Hurriyat leaders during the planned visit to New Delhi.
All the four Kashmiri leaders from IOK invited to this meeting by the OIC were prevented by suspending their passports for four-month period.
We hope that the international community will carefully ponder over India’s persistent refusal to hold meaningful talks on the Kashmir issue.”
He recalled that on its part, Pakistan is ready to hold talks with India at any level and without any preconditions in order to address each other’s concerns and establish lasting peace by resolving all outstanding issues, especially the Jammu and Kashmir dispute.
He reminded that the unprovoked and indiscriminate ceasefire violations by India across the Line of Control (LoC) and the Working Boundary have resulted in loss of many civilian lives, including that of women and children.
Last month alone, Indian shelling resulted in martyrdom of 20 civilians including women and children on our side of the LoC and the Working Boundary.
“Pakistan has repeatedly called for impartial investigation into the ceasefire violations. The United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) provides an indispensable mechanism to monitor peace along the LoC and the Working Boundary. It is important that UNMOGIP is strengthened and allowed to undertake its mandated task of a neutral observer. We request the OIC Contact Group to impress upon India to refrain from ceasefire violations, which are becoming a threat to peace in the region,” he added.
“Let me reiterate. Pakistan remains committed to finding a just and peaceful solution to the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in accordance with the UN Security Council Resolutions, which is reflective of the aspirations of the Kashmiri people.” He said that the people of Jammu and Kashmir look up to the OIC and the brotherly Muslim countries for their consistent and invaluable support in achieving their right to self-determination.