BAGH (AJK): Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Tuesday thanked the countries who stayed away from participation in the G20 tourism meeting in Srinagar.
“I salute to China, Saudi Arabia, Turkiye and other countries who rejected the Indian invitation to participate in the G20 tourism meeting in the Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir territory,” he said while addressing a public gathering in Bagh, Azad Jammu and Kashmir.
He said the countries that were participating in the conference had also downgraded their participation which reflected that there was nothing normal in the conference.
FM Bilawal said that this is his first visit to Bagh as the Foreign Minister of Pakistan and he is representing each citizen and party of the country.
He said that despite ideological and political differences among political parties, he represents the country as a whole globally. He said that he has been carrying out his duties as the foreign minister for a year and in every international interaction, Kashmir remains his priority.
“Not only am I representing Pakistan as its Foreign Minister, but also Azad Kashmir and Occupied Kashmir,” Chairman FM Bilawal said.
“Despite the temporary internal issues that Pakistan is faced with, our fraternal relationship with that of Kashmir is one that is generational. Quaid-e-Awam had promised to struggle for a thousand years for the sake of Kashmir. We are the successors of martyrs and this is their soil, we will always stand shoulder to shoulder with our Kashmiri brothers,” the PPP leader remarked.
Bilawal said that when he visits the United Nations or any international forum, he always stresses on how the issue is not limited to Pakistan and India but the Kashmiri people and the international world. The UN resolutions state that this issue concerns the entire world, and holding a plebiscite is the sole solution.
“When I talk of the rights given to the Kashmiri people by the UN, Indian representatives label us “terrorists” in response. When we talk of the Kashmiri people and their rights, they accuse us of representing terrorists. How can they accuse us of engaging in terrorism when we ourselves have been impacted by it and are the victims? Two Jiyalas from Bagh accepted martyrdom on 18th October, 2007. It is not our problem that India is governed by a political party that is religiously-motivated and Islamophobic,” FM Bilawal said.
Bilawal said how tourism could be promoted in an area where half of the local population was in jail and over 900,000 armed personals were deployed to curb the voices of local people demanding their right to self-determination.
He said that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi government was actually a big supporter of terrorist organizations in India which were involved in the terrorism activities against the Indian minorities including Muslims and Christians.
“When we speak for the human rights of the Kashmiris, they (Indian government) say we are representing terrorists”, he said adding “how they could call us terrorists when we also had been the victims of the terrorism.”
“We want peace and represent the people affected by the terrorism,” he added.
Referring to the Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi, Bilawal Bhutto Zardari said when he called a butcher, a butcher or a murderer, a murderer, they started crying.
He questioned either the real terrorists were those who had placed the head money for the foreign minister of a country or those who themselves were the victims of terrorism.
The foreign minister said when he met with the foreign dignitaries, he always raised voice for the cause of Kashmiris.
He said when he was a foreign minister, he was not representing any political party but every Pakistani citizen.
“When there is Kashmir cause, we always stand united on the issue by setting aside all political differences,” he said.
Kashmir issue was not the issue of Pakistan and India, but it was issue of the people of Kashmir and it had become an international problem which could not be resolved until the Kashmiris were not allowed their right to self-determination.
He said that India has developed a habit of receiving demure responses. The real faces of those who labelled us extremists and terrorists have been revealed before the world. They put a price on the head of the Foreign Minister of Pakistan. Owing to the struggle of the Kashmiri people, the world has started accepting the real face of India. We have not let the world forget Kashmir any opportunity we get.
Recently, it was decided that we attend the Shanghai Cooperation Organisation’s conference in Goa despite not resuming meaningful dialogue with India since August 2019.
The decision was made with the foresight to not let India enjoy an open pitch and to present the case of Pakistan in India, before its representatives. We interacted with the Indian media and its people to advocate for peace.
We conducted ourselves in a manner that complied with the SCO’s rules and regulations as an effort to portray the real image of Pakistanis, Kashmiris and Muslims, who are not terrorists. If there are terrorists, they are the ones who spread terror in Gujrat and over the Samjhauta Express.
When the status of Indian Illegally Occupied Kashmir is reversed, we, as the pro-peace party in the dialogue, would be willing to talk. Who are they to hold a tourism workshop in Srinagar? The Kashmiri people should be the ones enjoying the fruits of their labour, not Delhi.
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