ISLAMABAD     -    Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari yesterday said Pakistan will continue supporting Kashmiri brethren for their just right to self-determination. In a message on the occasion of Right to Self-Determination Day  (5th January 2023), Bilawal said in this day in 1949, the United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan (UNCIP) unanimously adopted a resolution espousing the right to self-determination of the Kashmiri people through a free and impartial plebiscite under the auspices of the United Nations. The right to self-determination is a cardinal principle of international law that is upheld by international human rights instruments. It has been reaffirmed by UN General Assembly in its annual resolution on self-determination, he added.

“This day reminds the international community, especially the United Nations, of the imperative of honouring its commitment towards the people of Jammu and Kashmir,” Bilawal said. He said the last 75 years of India’s occupation of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) are a sad story of repression of the Kashmiri people. India has unleashed a reign of terror in IIOJK, and denied these oppressed people the right to exercise their inalienable right to self-determination and lead a life of dignity. Since its illegal and unilateral actions of 5 August 2019, India is engineering demographic and political changes in IIOJK to convert Kashmiris into a disempowered minority in their own land.