Statement by Mr. Sartaj Aziz, Adviser to PM on National Security & Foreign Affairs At the Meeting of OIC Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir

“Secretary General, Mr. Iyad Ameen Madani,

Honorable Foreign Minister of Azerbaijan

Honorable Foreign Minister of Turkey

Honorable Representative of Niger

Honorable Foreign Minister of Saudi Arabia

Distinguished Participants,

It is a privilege to address this meeting of the OIC Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir. I would like to convey my gratitude for the support extended by the Secretary General for convening this meeting.

I am also grateful to all of you, Excellencies, for attending this meeting. Your presence here today demonstrates your solidarity with the oppressed people of Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

Pakistan remains committed to finding a just and peaceful resolution to the Jammu and Kashmir dispute. Pakistan’s principled position on the Kashmir dispute is based on the UN Security Council Resolutions, which remain unimplemented to this day.

Excellencies,

Instead of upholding the inalienable right to self-determination promised to the Kashmir people by the United Nations and to fulfill its own pledges, India decided to try to quell the Kashmiri struggle by use of brute force. As a result, more than 90,000 Kashmiris have been killed by the Indian Security forces over the last two decades in Indian Occupied Kashmir.

The Kashmiri leaders continue to remain in detention or have been put under house arrest. The people of IOK, including women, are being arrested for hoisting the national flag of Pakistan. Framing treason charges for hoisting the Pakistani flag is legally untenable, since the Kashmiri people have never accepted the Indian occupation. India is attempting to change the demographic make-up of Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir by settling non-State, non-Muslim subjects in occupied Jammu and Kashmir. Recently on the eve of Eid-e-Azha the Government of IOK imposed a ban on the slaughter of cows with a 10 year imprisonment for violators.

Pakistan is steadfast in extending political, moral and diplomatic support to the people of Kashmir in their just struggle for their inalienable right to self-determination. We have consistently emphasized the need for the full respect of human rights of the Kashmiris. Significantly, a number of human rights organizations, including UN Human Rights Council, OIC, Amnesty International, and Human Rights Watch have regularly criticized the human rights violations in IOK. It has been greatly appreciated that OIC Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission has been mandated to monitor the human rights situation in Indian occupied Kashmir.

India continues to hold sham elections in Jammu and Kashmir, with coercive military presence. In this context, the United Nations Security Council Resolutions 91 of 1951 and 122 of 1957 reject all such solutions as a substitute to a free and impartial Plebiscite for the final disposition of the State of Jammu and Kashmir.

Excellencies,

The people of Pakistan and Jammu and Kashmir deeply value the consistent support extended by the OIC for the rights of the Kashmiri people. Regular meetings of the Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir are an expression of Islamic solidarity with the oppressed people of Indian occupied Kashmir.

We firmly believe that for a durable solution of the Kashmir dispute, Kashmiris should be associated with the dialogue process. Pakistan supports engagement with India in a constructive and purposeful dialogue to resolve this issue. However, our efforts to peacefully resolve the Jammu and Kashmir dispute are not being reciprocated. This August, India cancelled the talks by setting pre-conditions to exclude Jammu and Kashmir from the agenda and prohibiting Pakistan’s interaction with the Kashmiri Hurriyat leaders during my planned visit to New Delhi. All the four Kashmiris leaders from IOK, invited to this meeting by the OIC were preventedby suspending their passports for a four month period. We hope that the international community will carefully ponder over India’s persistent refusal to hold meaningful talks on the Kashmir issue.

On its part, Pakistan is ready to hold talks with India, at any level, without any preconditions, in order to address each other’s concerns and establish lasting peace by resolving all outstanding issues, especially the Jammu and Kashmir dispute.

Excellencies,

The unprovoked and indiscriminate ceasefire violations by India across the Line of Control (LoC) and the Working Boundary have resulted in loss of many civilian lives, including women and children. Last month alone, Indian shelling resulted in martyrdom of 20 civilians including women and children on our side of the LoC and the Working Boundary.

Pakistan has repeatedly called for impartial investigation into the Ceasefire Violations. The United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) provides an indispensable mechanism to monitor peace along the LoC and the Working Boundary. It is important that UNMOGIP is strengthened and allowed to undertake its mandated task of a neutral observer. We request the OIC Contact Group to impress upon India to refrain from Ceasefire Violations, which are becoming a threat to peace in the Region.

Excellencies,

Let me reiterate, Pakistan remains committed to finding a just and peaceful solution to the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in accordance with the UN Security Council Resolutions, which is reflective of the aspirations of the Kashmiri people.

The people of Jammu and Kashmir look up to the OIC and the brotherly Muslim countries for their consistent and invaluable support in achieving their right to self-determination.

I thank you.”

Islamabad
29th September, 2015

365/2015