Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar highlights Pakistan’s call for continued OIC support for Kashmir and the Kashmiri people’s right to self-determination.
NEW YORK/ISLAMABAD: Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Senator Mohammad Ishaq Dar has called for maintaining a unified position within the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, stressing continued support for the Kashmiri people’s right to self-determination.
Dar made the remarks while addressing the ministerial meeting of the OIC Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir on the sidelines of the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York.
According to Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs, Dar thanked the OIC secretary-general, members of the Contact Group, the OIC special representative for Jammu and Kashmir and the OIC Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission for their continued and principled support for the Kashmiri people.
The OIC has also reaffirmed its support for the Kashmiri people’s right to self-determination. At a Contact Group meeting in New York on Sept. 21, OIC Secretary-General Ismail Ould Cheikh Ahmed reiterated the organization’s position that the right to self-determination is central to a just and lasting peace in South Asia, in accordance with relevant U.N. Security Council resolutions and international law.
Dar said political and civil liberties in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir remain subject to restrictions, while efforts are being made to alter the region’s demographic, political and cultural identity.
He described Jammu and Kashmir as an internationally recognized dispute that remains on the agenda of the U.N. Security Council. Dar maintained that domestic legislation, judicial decisions, electoral processes or demographic changes cannot replace the Kashmiri people’s right to self-determination.
Pakistan’s Foreign Office has previously stated that the OIC Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir includes Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, Azerbaijan and Niger and serves as a mechanism for coordinated OIC advocacy on the dispute.
The OIC’s latest Contact Group meeting also expressed concern over the humanitarian, human rights and security situation in the region and called for greater international efforts to protect human rights, document developments transparently and keep the Kashmir issue on the international agenda.
Pakistan has consistently raised the Kashmir dispute at international forums, maintaining that its resolution should be in accordance with relevant U.N. Security Council resolutions and the right to self-determination of the Kashmiri people.
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