Senate body rejects US diplomat's statement on CPEC

The Senate Standing Committee on Foreign Affairs Tuesday out-rightly rejected the statement by top US diplomat Alice Wells on China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) as "unacceptable interference in Pakistan's sovereign right to exercise policy choices that best protect and promote its national interests" and termed it an obsession of 'countering' China.

The committee, which met with Senator Mushahid Hussain Syed in the chair, unanimously passed a resolution against the statement by Alice Wells, the Principal Deputy Assistant Secretary of state for South and Central Asia, about the CPEC, describing it as 'uncalled for, unwarranted and unprecedented.' "The Senate Foreign Affairs Committee feels that casting aspersions, promoting fiction and presenting a biased perspective on the CPEC, which is already a success story, only shows the extent to which certain quarters can go in their obsession of 'countering' China," reads the resolution.

The committee also 'strongly' urged the government of Pakistan to make it clear in "unequivocal terms that Pakistan will not tolerate any dictation from any country that seeks to undermine the time-tested Pakistan-China relations."

The committee was given a detailed in-camera briefing by Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi regarding the situation in Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IOJ&K), the Kartarpur Corridor, Pakistan's role in mediation between Iran and Saudi Arabia, as well as formulation of a comprehensive and long-term Kashmir strategy. ?Qureshi told the panel that he would soon convene a meeting of Apex Kashmir Committee, so that a comprehensive and sustainable Kashmir strategy can be formulated, in consultation with the Parliament as well as the opposition. He said that the government is planning to send delegation abroad which will include representatives of the parliamentary opposition, and Foreign Office is also planning to hold an international conference on Kashmir at various locations within Pakistan and abroad.

Qureshi also updated the committee about the ongoing diplomatic outreach, saying that so far 400 contacts have been made through Pakistan missions abroad to sensitize the international community about the worst human rights violations in the IOJ&K. "We will continue approaching each and every form to expose Indian government's brutalities against innocent Kashmiri people and the false propaganda campaign of the Modi government against Pakistan," he said, adding that an international seminar would also be convened in which experts and diplomats from across the world would be invited.

Referring to the increasing Islamophobia in the West, Qureshi said that Pakistan, together with Turkey, Malaysia and Qatar, is formulating a joint strategy to promote the true face of Islam before the world.

About the Kartarpur Corridor, the foreign minister said that 140 million Sikhs from across the globe have thanked Pakistan for the positive gesture.

The chairman of the committee made it clear that on the issue of Kashmir, the whole nation speaks with one voice and it was at the initiative of the Senate Foreign Affairs Committee last year that an international Kashmir Conference was convened in the British Parliament in February 2019 where the foreign minister as well as the entire parliamentary committee participated and spoke with one voice and at one platform on Kashmir.

Senator Rehman Malik urged the government to approach the International Criminal Court and International Court of Justice against Indian Prime Minister Modi for his crimes against the humanity in the IOJ&K. Malik also accused a courier service which provides services to foreign embassies in Pakistan of stealing the data of Pakistani citizens and demanded that that the government should ask the embassies to start their own services.

?In other business, the Senate committee also took note on the public petition complaining against Pakistan's Consul General in Barcelona, Spain, and it took strong exception to the contents and language used by the Pakistani Consul General based in Barcelona terming it an unacceptable "character assassination" and language not befitting a diplomat of Pakistan against fellow Pakistanis. The committee ordered Foreign Office to make an inquiry into the matter and present a compliance report by December 15, 2019.

?The committee also took note of Pakistani prisoners in foreign countries and instructed the Foreign Office to provide early redressal to the grievances of these Pakistani prisoners languishing in jails abroad.

?The meeting was attended by Senators Javed Abbasi, Dr Asif Kirmani, Nuzhat Sadiq, Seemee Ezdi, Attaur Rehman, Rehman Malik, Sherry Rehman, Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar, Mian Mohammad Ateeq Shaikh, Siraj-ul-Haq, Sitara Ayaz, Dr Shahzad Waseem, and Minister for Foreign Affairs Shah Mahmood Qureshi and Special Secretary Moazam Ali Khan along with senior officers from the Foreign Office.