ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has expressed deep concerns over the cycle of occupation, oppression and violence in Palestine.
Speaking at the UN General Assembly’s sixth committee meeting in New York, Second Secretary at Pakistan’s Permanent Mission to the UN Rabia Ijaz said the rapidly deteriorating and dire humanitarian situation in Gaza due to the indiscriminate aerial bombardment and an inhumane blockade of food, fuel and medicines, as collective punishment of the entire Palestinian population of Gaza by Israeli Occupation forces are unacceptable.
These actions amount to war crimes and crimes against humanity. According to a Radio Pakistan’s report, she said the current cycle of aggression and violence is a sad reminder and a direct consequence of over seven decades of illegal Israeli occupation, aggression, and disrespect for international law, including UNSC resolutions that recognize the inalienable right to self-determination of the Palestinian people.
Rabia Ijaz said the international community must work together for a just, comprehensive and lasting two-state solution with a viable, sovereign and contiguous State of Palestine on the basis of pre-1967 borders, with Al Quds Al-Sharif as its capital.
Exercising its right of reply, Second Secretary Rabia Ijaz said Jammu and Kashmir is an internationally recognized disputed territory and is not at all a so-called integral part of India nor is it India’s domestic matter.
She said the UN Security Council in its resolutions has decided that the final disposition of Kashmir shall be determined by its people through a United Nations supervised plebiscite. She said India accepted this decision and is bound to comply with it in accordance with Article 25 of the UN Charter.
Rabia Ijaz said India has no right to take any unilateral action to change the status of the territory. She said India is shamelessly engaged in crushing the legitimate Kashmiri quest for self-determination with an occupation army of 900,000 troops.
Since 1989, she pointed out that over a hundred thousand Kashmiris have been killed, and a systematic settler-colonial project is underway and the tale of atrocities continues.