ISLAMABAD, Jan 4 (APP):Prime Minister Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif has stressed that the United Nations must honour the commitments it had made 74 years ago and support the Kashmiris’ struggle for self-determination.
The prime minister, in a message on the occasion of Kashmiris’ Right to Self-Determination being observed on January 5th, said the commemoration of the Day was aimed at reminding the global community of its responsibility towards the oppressed Kashmiri people.
“Pakistan will continue to extend its unstinting moral, political and diplomatic support to the right of self-determination of the people of Jammu and Kashmir in accordance with the relevant UN Security Council resolutions,” he added.
The prime minister said the 5th of January was annually observed as the Right to Self-Determination Day for the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
On that day in 1949, the United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan (UNCIP) had adopted a resolution that guaranteed a free and fair plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir, to enable the Kashmiri people to realize their right to self-determination, the PM Office Media Wing in a press release quoted the prime minister as saying.
The right to self-determination was a cardinal principle of international law and upheld by international human rights organizations, he said, adding every year, the UN General Assembly adopted a resolution that denoted the legal right of people to decide their own destiny.
“It expresses unequivocal support for the realization of the right to self-determination for peoples under foreign occupation,” he said.
Regrettably, the prime minister said, the oppressed people of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) had not been able to exercise that right.
“Not only has the Indian Government denied the inalienable right of self- determination to the Kashmiris, it has created an environment of fear in IIOJK, which has been exacerbated with India’s illegal and unilateral actions of 5 August 2019. The people of IIOJK are being subjected to systematic and widespread human rights abuses,” the prime minister added.