ISLAMABAD: Pakistan categorically rejected the “unwarranted and preposterous” comments made by the spokesperson of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) on the Pakistan-China Joint Statement of 6th February 2022, and termed this as part of the Indian sinister campaign against the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC).
“We also strongly reject India’s persistent propaganda against China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Pakistan has shared irrefutable evidence of India’s sinister campaign to sabotage CPEC through its dossiers released in 2020 and 2021,” Foreign Office Spokesperson Asim Iftikhar said in a statement, while referring to his Indian counterpart Arindam Bagchi’s remarks about the recent Joint Statement of Pakistan and China.
The spokesperson said that there is strong evidence of Indian involvement in recent sinister attempts to stir up unrest in Balochistan by supporting anti-state elements. Besides, Naval Commander Kulbhushan Jadhav is a living and irrefutable proof of how India has been seeking to sponsor and patronise subversive activities in Pakistan and the region.
Similarly, he added that New Delhi’s baseless claims over Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) can neither change the facts of history nor the legal status of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute. The IIOJK never was and never will be India’s “integral part”.
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“The irrefutable fact remains that India is an occupation force in IIOJK in clear violation of the relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions, and its illegal and unilateral actions of 5th August 2019, seeking to change the internationally recognized disputed status of IIOJK and to alter its demographic structure, have been rejected by the Kashmiris, by Pakistan, and by the international community,” he added.
He stated that Pakistan will continue to extend all possible support to the Kashmiris in their just struggle against India’s illegal occupation.
“Rather than resorting to false and misleading assertions without success, India must vacate its illegal occupation of the disputed territory, immediately reverse its illegal and unilateral actions of 5th August 2019, and let Kashmiris exercise their inalienable right to self-determination through a free and impartial plebiscite under the auspices of the United Nations as enshrined in the relevant UNSC resolutions,” he added.
In a statement on Wednesday, the Indian MEA spokesperson had stated: “We have noted references to Jammu & Kashmir and the so-called China-Pakistan Economic Corridor in the joint statement between China and Pakistan issued on 06 February 2022.”
“We have always rejected such references and our position is well known to China and Pakistan. In this instance too, we reject reference to Jammu and Kashmir in the joint statement. The Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir and the Union Territory of Ladakh have been, are and will always remain integral and inalienable parts of India. We expect the parties concerned not to interfere in matters that are internal affairs of India,” Bagchi had maintained.
“As regards reference to the so-called China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), we have consistently conveyed our concerns to China and Pakistan on the projects in the so-called CPEC, which are in India’s territory that has been illegally occupied by Pakistan. We resolutely oppose any attempts to change the status quo by other countries, as also by Pakistan, in the areas under the illegal occupation of Pakistan. We call upon the parties concerned to cease such activities,” the Indian MEA spokesperson had further maintained.
Copyright Business Recorder, 2022