Pakistan has rejected India’s ‘baseless’ objection to the invitation of Kashmiri leadership to the OIC session in Islamabad this month after India claimed the move ‘subverted’ the country’s ‘sovereignty and territorial integrity’.
Pakistan’s Foreign Office issued a statement saying India had ‘no locus standi’ to claim the invitation extended to occupied Kashmir was an ‘internal matter’. The FO cited several United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions supporting the self-determination of the people Kashmir.
The FO condemned India for ‘questioning the OIC’s principled stance for the dignity and liberty of the oppressed Kashmiri people’ and instead called on the Indian government to ‘reflect inwards and end its repression and widespread violations of human rights and international humanitarian law in IIOJK [Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir].’
The OIC secretary general had invited All Parties Hurriyat Conference chairman Mirwaiz Umar Farooq to the meeting in Islamabad on March 22-23. Foreign ministers from 48 countries are expected to attend the event.
India’s Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said that the Indian government took a “very serious view of such actions which are aimed directly at subverting India’s unity and violating our sovereignty and territorial integrity.”
Islamabad has been steadily preparing for this year’s OIC meeting, renovating the National Assembly and urging political parties not to hold partisan rallies on the days the foreign dignitaries will arrive.
The Pakistan Democratic Movement (PDM) agreed to postpone its rally ahead of the no-confidence vote against the prime minister, with PDM chief Maulana Fazul Rehman saying, “We have great respect for Muslim countries and do not want to create any problems for the foreign dignitaries.”
