Pakistan to ‘continue supporting’ Kashmiris
Islamabad, The Gulf Observer: Pakistan’s Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has said Pakistan will continue to lend its unstinted moral, political, and diplomatic support to the rightful and just cause of the freedom struggle of the Kashmiri people while China has called for proper and peaceful resolution of the longstanding issue under the United Nations (UN) Charter, UN Security Council’s resolutions and bilateral agreements.
In a message on the Youm-e-Istehsal to be observed on Aug 5 (today), Premier Shehbaz said, “It is Pakistan’s abiding commitment and promise to our Kashmiri brothers and sisters that we will echo their voices at every forum until the world takes action and urges India to end its egregious human rights violations and forcible occupation of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu & Kashmir (IIOJK), undo all unilateral and illegal measures it has taken since August 5, 2019, and take necessary steps to carry out a fair and impartial plebiscite in accordance with the United Nations Security Council resolutions.”
Shehbaz said, “It has been four years since India unilaterally and illegally revoked the special status of IIOJK on August 5, 2019. Since then, India has resorted to use of brutal force and violence to suppress the Kashmiri people. It has also undertaken a series of measures clearly aimed at altering the internationally recognised disputed status of IIOJK. In particular, India has tried to bring about demographic changes to undermine the right to self-determination of the Kashmiris.”
The prime minister said, “The recent steps by India indicate its nefarious designs to disenfranchise the Muslim majority population of Kashmir. To this end, it has carried out a selective delimitation of electoral constituencies, issued fake domiciles to millions of non-Kashmiris, and added hundreds of thousands of temporary residents to alter the existing voter rolls. These are part of a well thought-out strategy to change Kashmir’s demography and political landscape. Pakistan outrightly rejects all such unilateral and illegal steps.”
