ISLAMABAD - Pakistan yesterday said that all was set for the extraordinary session of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation’s Council of Foreign Ministers meeting in Islamabad to discuss the Afghanistan issue.
Speaking at a weekly news briefing here, Foreign Office spokesperson Asim Iftikhar Ahmed said Pakistan was looking forward to hosting the 17th Extraordinary Session of OIC Council of Foreign Ministers on December 19 in Islamabad.
“The session’s focus is on the serious humanitarian situation in Afghanistan. We believe OIC’s leadership can help galvanize other international actors, and this Meeting will be a timely opportunity to consider practical arrangements and concrete steps to correspond to the humanitarian needs of the Afghan people,” he said.
Ahmed said Pakistan was getting positive response on the invitation extended to member countries, observer states and P5 countries to attend the extraordinary session.
To a question about the Winter Olympics to be held in China, he said Pakistan opposes the politicization of sports and hopes that all nations would come together in Beijing to showcase their sporting skills.
Commenting on the situation in held Kashmir, Foreign Office spokesperson Asim Iftikhar Ahmed urged the international community including the United Nations to take immediate cognizance of grave situation in occupied Kashmir.
He reiterated Pakistan’s deep concerns about human rights violations by India in Jammu and Kashmir, and efforts to change the demography of the disputed territory in violation of the UNSC resolutions.
Ahmed said as a testament to Pakistan’s credentials in multilateral diplomacy, Pakistan was elected Chair of G-77 and China for the year 2022, and re-elected to the Executive Council of the Organization for the Prohibition of Chemical Weapons for the term 2022-2024. In Vienna, Pakistan was elected as member of the Industrial Development Board, and Program and Budget Committee of UNIDO.
The spokesperson said the Forum on Cooperation between China and Pakistan Friendship Provinces and Cities, was organized as part of 70th Anniversary celebrations of Pak-China diplomatic relations under which over 120 events have been held so far in the two countries.
The International Day for the Elimination of Violence against Women was commemorated on 25 November, and today we are marking the Human Rights Day, he added.
In upholding universal respect for human rights, these occasions are also reminders to the international community to call for immediate cessation of widespread violations of human rights and international humanitarian law especially in situations of foreign occupation such as Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir, the spokesperson said.
This week, he said, marked the 29th year of the tragic demolition of the centuries-old Babri Masjid by BJP-RSS zealots in India. The new illegal structure being built at the site of the historic mosque will remain illegitimate in the eyes of Muslims and conscientious persons across the world. It is reprehensible that today’s Hindu majoritarian India presents a gruesome reality for its minorities, particularly Muslims, who are being persecuted in all walks of life with complete impunity and state complicity, the spokesperson said.
The plight of the Kashmiris in IIOJK is also evident before the international community. We strongly condemn the continuing military crackdowns, arbitrary detentions, coercion, use of force, and extra-judicial killings in fake encounters and staged operations by the Indian occupation forces in IIOJK, where at least 21 Kashmiris have been martyred in the last one month. Persisting with their callous behaviour, the occupation forces even deprive the bereaved families from carrying out last rites of their loved ones.
He said the international community, including the UN must take immediate cognizance of the grave situation in IIOJK, and it is in that context that the Foreign Minister has addressed another letter to the President of the UN Security Council the Secretary-General to apprise the world body entrusted with maintenance of international peace and security and a responsibility for peaceful resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in accordance with its own resolutions.