A spokesperson for the Foreign Office (FO) has said that Pakistan categorically rejects the fallacious and misguided remarks made by the Official Spokesperson of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), which he said was an effort to politicize the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
In a statement released on Tuesday, the FO spokesperson said that the CPEC is a transformational project and a harbinger of stability, mutual cooperation and shared development for the region, and claimed that the Indian remarks were aimed at politicizing the project.
As a flagship of the Belt and Road Initiative and hallmark of the Pakistan-China All-Weather Strategic Cooperative Partnership, CPEC provides a vehicle for the people of the region to break from zero-sum approaches, he said, adding that China’s investment in CPEC has helped Pakistan overcome the energy and infrastructural bottlenecks that once constrained growth and development.
The spokesperson remarked, “Attempts to cast aspersions over CPEC show India’s insecurity as well as the pursuit of a hegemonic agenda that has held back socio-economic development in South Asia for decades.”
While rejecting India’s fallacious assertion that CPEC impinges on its ‘sovereignty and territorial integrity”’ the statement pointed out that it is India that has been illegally occupying the state of Jammu & Kashmir for over seven decades.
It continued that this occupation has involved the perpetration of gross and widespread human rights violations and effectuating blatant territorial and demographic changes in the occupied territory in complete contravention of international law and relevant UNSC resolutions.
The spokesperson said that India’s attempts to mislead the international community about the status of Jammu and Kashmir and to hide its atrocities against the Kashmiri people will never succeed. He cautioned India to desist from falsehoods and baseless claims over a territory that it continues to illegally occupy through brute force.
