Islamabad: Pakistan has reiterated to raise its voice on the continuing grave human rights abuses in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK). At her weekly news briefing here in Islamabad on Thursday, Foreign Office Spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said Pakistan will also continue to extend unstinted moral, political and diplomatic support to the people of Jammu and Kashmir in their quest for self-determination in accordance with the relevant UN Security Council resolution.
She said we pay rich tribute to the sacrifices of martyrs of three massacres committed by the Indian occupation forces in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir during the month of January in the 1990s. With regard to situation in Afghanistan, the Spokesperson said Pakistan stresses the importance of peace and stability in our neighborhood.
She said we underscore our desire to work closely with regional countries to pursue continuous and practical engagement with the Interim Afghan Government on countering terrorism and to help avert humanitarian crisis in Afghanistan. The Spokesperson said during the visit of Russian Special Representative for Afghanistan Ambassador Zamir Kabulov, both Pakistan and Russia reiterated their commitment to work closely to further strengthen coordination and cooperation in promoting peace, stability and economic development in Afghanistan.
She said they also agreed to continue engagement both bilaterally and in the context of regional forums such as the Moscow Format and the neighboring countries of Afghanistan platform. The Spokesperson said Pakistan has strongly condemned the recent acts of desecration of the Holy Quran in Sweden and the Netherlands. She said we see these acts as racist, xenophobic and Islamophobic. Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said far from being a symbol of the freedom of expression and opinion, these acts are provocative and hurtful for the religious sensitivities of over 1.5 billion Muslims around the world.
She said we have conveyed our concerns to Sweden and the Netherlands and urged these governments to take concrete steps against Islamophobic acts. The Spokesperson said Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar will lead the Pakistan delegation to the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva on January 30. She said during the visit, Hina Rabbani Khar will highlight Pakistan’s important contributions towards global human rights discourse and norm-building.
