Back channel diplomacy with India ‘out of question’

ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office on Thursday dismissed any back channel diplomacy between Pakistan and India, saying it was “out of question” owing to worsening human rights situation in Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

“Not at all in the circumstances we are [in]. Not in the face of the brutality that is happening in Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir,” said Foreign Office Spokesperson Aisha Farooqui in her last weekly briefing with media after her successor Zahid Hafeez Chaudri was appointed to the position.

Farooqui said the situation of occupied Kashmir was deteriorating day by day and Pakistan would not consider any back channel diplomacy in the current scenario.

The spokesperson said Pakistan valued its longstanding relations with the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), however, the “people of Pakistan have some expectations from the body over the Jammu and Kashmir dispute”.

Asked about the remarks of Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who mentioned the delay on the part of OIC to convene a meeting of Council of Foreign Ministers, she said Pakistan “acknowledged and deeply appreciated the OIC’s role in highlighting the issue”.

She said three meetings of the OIC Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir were held in one year, two of ministerial level.

As regards to Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav, Farooqui said Pakistan had conveyed to India the August 3 directive of the Islamabad High Court (IHC). She said as per the IHC, India had been communicated with through diplomatic channels to engage a lawyer for its serving navy commander.

The spokesperson said Wednesday’s meeting of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) on Jammu and Kashmir was clear testimony that the dispute was “neither an internal matter of India nor a bilateral issue, but a matter of international significance”.

She rejected the impression that Pakistan’s new political map was a diversion from its 72-year-old stance. “Pakistan still supports the resolution of Jammu and Kashmir dispute in accordance with the resolutions of UNSC and as per the aspirations of Kashmiri people,” she said.

On Afghanistan, she said Pakistan was committed to the resumption of peace and reconciliation process in its neighbouring country as “any delay would help the spoilers to inflict damage upon the situation”.

She said the government was in touch with stakeholders and interlocutors for early resumption of the Afghan peace process.