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Sunday July 20, 2025

Report of OIC’s envoy yet to be shared with Pakistan

By Muhammad Saleh Zaafir
August 10, 2020

ISLAMABAD: The report of first ever special envoy of Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) for Jammu and Kashmir Ambassador Yousef M Aldobeay’s visit of the region has yet to be shared with Pakistan who came to the region five months ago and had studied various aspects of the situation in Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOJ&K) in the wake of annexation of the area with Indian Union Territory.

India refused to accord permission to the special envoy to visit IOJ&K. He was welcomed in Pakistan after his appointment in May 2019 in 14th OIC summit held in Makkah as he stayed here for five days during which he visited the Line of Control (LoC) in Azad Kashmir.

Ambassador Yousef M Aldobeay comes from Saudi Arabia and his country is also member of the Contact Group of the organisation on Kashmir along-with Turkey, Azerbaijan, Niger and Pakistan. The special envoy participated in the Contact Group’s virtual conference held in June but he didn’t submit his report in that sitting of the group as well.

Well-placed sources told The News here on Sunday that the contact group had its one meeting ever since the IOJ&K status has been altered by India unilaterally more than one year ago and interestingly the meeting took place after great efforts of Pakistan in June this year.

The Foreign Office was approached Sunday evening, but it didn’t provide any details about the report. The Contact Group on Kashmir was headed by Turkey and Saudi Arabia used to play active role in its proceedings.

Another off-putting development pertaining to Kashmir issue was that none of the OIC member countries took up the Kashmir issue with India despite it called upon the member states to raise the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in their bilateral engagements with India with a view to safeguarding the fundamental human rights of the Kashmiri people in the occupied territory, and ensuring expeditious implementation of the relevant UNSC resolutions. Islamabad also didn’t actively persuade the member states in this regard, the sources said.

It would be pertinent to recall that Ambassador Yousef M Al Dobeay upon conclusion of his visit to Pakistan assured all-out support to bring an end to the sufferings of the Kashmiri people. The special envoy and his high-level delegation had meetings with the prime minister, foreign minister, minister for Kashmir affairs and Gilgit-Baltistan, parliamentary committee on Kashmir, and foreign secretary. A delegation of representatives of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) also met with the delegation and apprised it of the aggravating situation in IOJ&K. The special envoy was apprised of the dire human rights and humanitarian situation in the IOJ&K and the threat to peace and security owing to India’s belligerent rhetoric and aggressive actions.