ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari said on Thursday the right to self-determination was a cardinal principle of international law while pointing out that January 5 was the day when the United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan recognized the same privilege for the people of Kashmir in 1949.
The commission was established soon after the independence of India and Pakistan to probe and mediate the Kashmir dispute after the two newly created South Asian states clashed over the Himalayan territory.
Pakistan has since demanded the resolution of the Kashmir dispute in line with the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions while projecting “rights abuses” in the Indian administered part of the disputed region.
The country’s foreign minister also described “the last 75 years of India’s occupation” as “a sad story of repression of the Kashmiri people” in his message to honor the day.
“India has unleashed a reign of terror in IIOJK [Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir], and denied these oppressed people the right to exercise their inalienable right to self-determination and lead a life of dignity,” he said.
“It is time for the international community, especially the United Nations, to live up to their promises and take measures enabling the people of Jammu and Kashmir to exercise the right of self-determination as enshrined in UNSC resolutions,” he continued. “It must also call for an immediate cessation of human rights abuses and a reversal of measures by India to change the demographic structure of IIOJK.”
The foreign minister said Pakistan would continue to play its role to support the right to self-determination of Kashmiris while reiterating it was their “inalienable right.”
