ISLAMABAD - Pakistan Wednesday said that Islamabad welcomes the United States’ mediation on the longstanding Kashmir issue and asked Washington to convince New Delhi on the offer.
Addressing a weekly news briefing here, new Foreign Office Spokesperson Dr Mohammed Faisal said it was India who was running away from talks of mediation offers.
To a question about US Secretary of State Rex Tillerson’s offer during his recent visit to de-escalate tension between Pakistan and India, he said: “The US has repeatedly stated in both private and public interactions that it wants to see de-escalation between Pakistan and India. We have welcomed these statements by the US officials since Pakistan has also been making consistent efforts to reach out to India with a view to lowering the temperatures.”
He added: “India, however, has repeatedly refused to engage bilaterally. It has resisted third country mediation, which indicates India’s defiance to the peaceful means for dispute resolution, as envisaged in the UN charter.”
Faisal said the Kashmir dispute can only be resolved through implementation of relevant UN Security Council Resolutions, which to date, have remained unimplemented.
“The people of Kashmir have been struggling for the just right to self-determination, as envisaged in the UNSC Resolutions, for the past 70 years,” he added.
The spokesperson said Kashmir dispute had three parties - Pakistan, India, and Kashmir. “All three parties must hold a dialogue under the ambit of UNSC resolutions to resolve the dispute in an amicable manner,” he maintained.
About exchange of list of terrorists between Pakistan and the US, he said during the recent interactions with the US, all issues of mutual interest including counter-terrorism and regional situation have come under discussion.
Asked about the abduction of an Afghan Deputy Governor Muhammad Nabi Ahmadi in Pakistan, he said, the Deputy Governor was on a private visit. “No prior intimation was given in this regard. We were approached by the Afghan Embassy regarding the incident. All efforts are underway to trace his whereabouts,” he added.
To another question, Faisal said Quadrilateral Coordination Group was an initiative facilitating talks between Afghan Taliban under shared responsibility.
The spokesperson said it had been Pakistan’s consistent position that Afghanistan as a landlocked country had a right of transit access through any neighbouring country according to its needs.
Asked if Pakistan’s neighbouring countries had developed an alliance against the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor, he said: “We do not regard it as any kind of alliance against us. Our trade with Afghanistan, Iran and China continues as before. I have already mentioned that Chabahar and Gwadar ports are complementary to each other.”
Regarding the controversial video clip that was allegedly uploaded on Pakistan High Commission’s website in Bangladesh, Faisal said the video clip was uploaded “not on our website but on the High Commission’s Facebook page by someone else.” He added: “The video was immediately deleted, and we have tweeted about it from spokesperson’s official account yesterday. We sincerely hope that the bilateral relationship between Pakistan and Bangladesh will continue to move in the letter and spirit of the Tripartite Agreement of 1974.”
He said the 1974 Tripartite Agreement between Pakistan, India and Bangladesh was the cornerstone for taking the relations forward between the countries. “We expect our Bangladeshi people to adhere to it,” the spokesperson said.
To a question, he said, Pakistan had contributed with both blood and treasure in the fight against terrorism and made significant gains through its effective counter-terrorism operations. “We reject baseless allegations of safe havens. We have repeatedly conveyed to the US leadership that it should refrain from making unfounded assertions. Secretary Tillerson has also appreciated the need for intelligence cooperation between the two countries,” he contended. He said regarding Mullah Fazlullah “we have raised concerns on his ease of mobility within Afghanistan, and the fact that he has used Afghan soil to perpetrate terrorism within Pakistan, with Afghanistan, US and at all relevant forums.”
Faisal said the foreign policy of Pakistan was guided by the vision of Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah, which envisages the concept of peaceful neighbourhood and friendly relations towards all countries of the world.
He said Pakistan’s official position on matters of national security and foreign policy was driven by this vision, and was carefully calibrated and well thought-out.
He said Pakistan and Iran held the first round of informal consultations on regional peace and security with a focus on the situation in Afghanistan. Faisal said the construction of any facility on the borders has to conform to the bilateral agreements between the two sides.
The spokesperson said the growing extremism and intolerance in Indian society is visible to everyone. “Indian maltreatment of minorities, religious intolerance, and extremism are the sad reality of modern India. We see that in an array of cases including the controversy surrounding the Taj Mahal and increasing incidents of lynching by cow vigilantes,” he added.
Just this year, he said, the Amnesty International again condemned the hate crimes against Muslims, in India.
To a question on possibility of granting visa to convicted Indian spy Kulbhushan Jhadav’s mother matters related to Jhadav were under consideration.
About Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s criticism on the Congress party for echoing Pakistan’s point of view on Kashmir, Faisal said the indigenous Kashmir struggle for the realisation of the right to self-determination granted to them through the UNSC resolutions does not require any validation.
Earlier, in his opening statement, the spokesperson discussed the recent diplomatic developments. He condemned the bloodshed in held Kashmir.
Outgoing Spokesperson Nafees Zakaria also bid farewell to the media. He will soon take charge as Pakistan’s High Commissioner to Malaysia.
