Pakistan tried on Thursday to ignore reports that the Kashmir issue was not part of a meeting of foreign ministers of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), calling them “part of the false Indian propaganda.”
The OIC statements, in both English and Arabic, issued for Friday’s meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) in Niger’s capital Niamey, did not mention Kashmir on the agenda announced in Riyadh, the capital of Niger. Saudi Arabia, which currently leads the grouping. A report in the Daily Dawn newspaper said the latest omission comes at a time when ties between Pakistan and Saudi Arabia and the United Arab Emirates remain strained over what Pakistani diplomats say are “unfulfilled expectations.”
But Foreign Ministry spokesman Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri told a weekly press conference that the Kashmir issue was a “permanent issue” on the OIC’s agenda.
He said Friday would be the CFM’s first meeting after India revoked Kashmir’s special status in August last year.
“The session is expected to reiterate its strong support for the cause of Kashmir. Let me confirm that the Jammu and Kashmir dispute remains one of the oldest items on the OIC agenda, ”he insisted.
The spokesperson also said that the OCI has been “speaking unambiguously on the issue for decades, through a succession of CFM summits and resolutions.”
He insisted that the OIC had spoken out on the Kashmir issue several times and has “called for an agreement […] with the pertinent resolutions of the Security Council of the UN ”.
The OIC Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir has met three times in the past 15 months, Chaudhri said, adding that in June this year a meeting of the group was held with foreign ministers.
“The final communiqué of that meeting called on India to rescind its illegal actions and stop egregious human rights violations in the illegally occupied territory,” he said.
Pakistan is represented at the meeting by Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who left Islamabad on Wednesday to participate in the OIC meeting.
Before leaving for Niger, Qureshi told reporters that he would raise the issue of Kashmir and Islamophobia at the two-day meeting.
“I will focus on the issue of Kashmir and Islamophobia at the meeting. We will discuss the problems facing the Muslim Ummah (nation) at the meeting, ”he said.
The foreign minister said that on the sidelines of the meeting, he will also hold bilateral parliaments with his counterparts from Islamic countries. “OIC members will give their positions on international affairs and efforts will be made to develop a joint position of Muslim majority countries,” he added.
In August, Qureshi had asked the OIC to “stop wasting time” in convening a meeting of its Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) in Kashmir, which angered the group’s Saudi leaders.
“If you cannot convene it, then I will be forced to ask Prime Minister Imran Khan to convene a meeting of the Islamic countries that are willing to support us on the Kashmir issue and support the oppressed Kashmiris,” he had said at the time.
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