Pakistan launches international campaign highlighting Kashmir issue – Foreign Office

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has launched a "massive international campaign" to draw global attention to Kashmir issue and the human rights violations in the Indian administered part of the disputed territory, the foreign office announced on Thursday.
"The campaign includes some activities inside the country and some at the international level,” foreign office spokeswoman Aisha Farooqui said in a weekly media briefing in Islamabad.
Pakistani missions abroad will be engaged in the campaign which will not only run through Kashmir Solidarity Day on Feb. 5, but will continue beyond it, Farouqi said.
“Our missions in more than 100 countries have designed a comprehensive strategy, with different programs in respective countries,” she added.
The official further dismissed the notion that Pakistan intended to take similar steps as India and annex Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) – the part of disputed Kashmir territory under its administrative control.
Last year, the Indian government revoked the constitutional autonomy of Indian administered Kashmir to fully integrate it with the rest of India.
“There is no proposal under consideration to merge AJK with Pakistan and neither any change in the status of Gilgit Baltistan is deliberated,” Farooqi said, referring to Pakistan's northern region which enjoys the right to self-government.
Commenting on a recent proposal by the European Parliament to settle the Kashmir dispute, Farouqi said that Pakistan fully supported any initiative which highlighted the plight of Kashmiri people under the Indian rule including all efforts in accordance with the UN Security Council resolutions reflecting will of the people of Kashmir.
“This is the European Union's (EU) own initiative and we fully support all initiatives that help in raising basic awareness among the international community on human rights violations in Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir,” Farooqui said, adding that over eight million people were bearing the brunt of Indian atrocities in the Kashmir region.