ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Thursday called upon the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to take a leading role in raising the issue of Jammu and Kashmir internationally and also hoped that progress is made on its long-awaited request to convene the special session of the OIC's Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM).

Foreign Office spokesperson Aisha Farooqui told her weekly media briefing that the people of Pakistan have more expectations from the OIC than any other organisation to highlight the Indian atrocities and play a leading role in resolving the Kashmir issue.

"We would like it [OIC] to play a leading role in raising the Jammu and Kashmir issue internationally. In this regard, our efforts will continue and we hope there will be further forward movement," she said.

The Foreign Office spokesperson statement comes after a day earlier Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi in an unusually sharp warning asked the OIC to stop dilly-dallying on the convening of a meeting of the CFM on Kashmir on Pakistan's request, pending since India's illegal and unilateral steps of August 5, 2019.

"I'm once again respectfully telling OIC that a meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers is our expectation. If you cannot convene it, then I'll be compelled to ask Prime Minister Imran Khan to call a meeting of the Islamic countries that are ready to stand with us on the issue of Kashmir and support the oppressed Kashmiris," the foreign minister said in a TV interview on Wednesday.

"If OIC fails to convene the CFM meeting, Pakistan would be ready to go for a session outside OIC...Pakistan cannot wait any further," Qureshi further said.

Responding to a question, Farooqui said that the statement made by the foreign minister was a reflection of people's aspirations and expectations from the OIC to take forward the dispute of Jammu and Kashmir internationally.

She said that Pakistan was deeply appreciative of the efforts made by the OIC and the OIC contact group on Jammu and Kashmir "with whom we work very closely raising it in the international community".

"We have expectations and we hope that there will be progress on the question of the CFM meeting," she added.

She said that Pakistan was a founding member of the OIC and "we have had longstanding fraternal and cooperative relations with the OIC member states".

Since 5th August 2019, she said that Pakistan has closely worked with the OIC secretary general and other brotherly countries of the OIC.

She said that three meetings of the OIC Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir have been convened during the last one year, two of which were at ministerial level and issued strong Ministerial Communiqués deploring the grave violations of the human rights in the IIOJK, demanding from India to rescind its illegal and unilateral actions of 5 August 2019, and calling for the resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in accordance with the UN Security Council's resolutions.

Regarding Pakistan's relations with Saudi Arabia, she said that the two countries had strong historic and fraternal relations.

"The people of Pakistan have deep respect for the Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques. Pakistan remains deeply committed to the sovereignty and the territorial integrity of Saudi Arabia," she said.

About the UN Security Council's Wednesday meeting on Kashmir, she said that the fact remains that in one year the Security Council discussed the Jammu and Kashmir dispute on three occasions.

She said that the Council received briefings from the UNMOGIP representative and the UN Secretariat's Political Affairs representatives.

"It is a clear testimony that it [Kashmir] is neither an internal issue of India nor a bilateral issue between Pakistan and India but an internationally recognised dispute that awaits the final settlement in accordance with UNSC resolutions," she asserted.

Asked if there was any possibility of backchannel diplomacy with India, she rule out any possibility in the current circumstances and Indian brutalities against the Kashmiri people.

"Not at all...not in the circumstances that we are observing. Not in the face of the brutality that the Indian security forces have unleashed on the innocent people of Jammu and Kashmir," she added.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020