ISLAMABAD: Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Monday said that India is misusing its position as chair of the G-20 for holding its meeting at the internationally-recognized disputed area, Srinagar, and also grilled the world powers for their utter disregard for the UN Security Council (UNSC) resolution and the UN Charter in the occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

As India is hosting the meeting of a tourism Working Group in Srinagar, the foreign minister addressed the joint session of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly and Azad Jammu and Kashmir Council in Muzaffarabad, on Monday, on his three-day visit to the AJK to express solidarity with people of Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir against nefarious motives of the Indian government to pretend normalcy by holding a G-20 moot in the disputed territory.

“This is yet another display of India’s arrogance on the world stage, Indian occupation of a territory that is recognized as disputed under international law. India is misusing its position as chair of the G-20. A forum created to address global financial and economic issues, with utter disregard for the UNSC resolution, the UN Charter and its principle India’s facade of normalcy in Kashmir is met by the harsh reality that occupied Kashmir remains one of the most militarized zones on the planet,” Bilawal said in his address which was televised live.

He said that normal areas are not under siege by millions of troops and normal areas are not operated under the so-called governance rule. “Normal areas do not have unidentified graves. In normal areas, people are allowed to travel abroad, and journalists are free to report how India can possibly claim that normalcy has returned to Kashmir?” he asked.

The foreign minister also reminded the Indian leaders that unilateral steps in Jammu and Kashmir can neither record legitimacy to their occupation nor suppress the true sentiments of the Kashmiri people. “Gimmickry cannot replace legitimacy. If India wants to be a superpower, then India must be acting like a superpower,” he said.

He said that the UN Special Rapporteur on Minority Affairs speaks clearly on the Srinagar meeting and claims that India is providing “a veneer of support to a facade of normalcy”. He said that the Special Rapporteur pointed out the blatant human rights violations in occupied Kashmir, and has drawn an apt conclusion that the situation in Jammu and Kashmir should be “decried and condemned, not pushed under the rug and ignored”.

He also reminded the world that there are two reports on the situation in occupied Kashmir by the Office of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights issued in 2018 and 2019. “Those of us who are interested in upholding human rights are morally bound to pay attention to these reports,” he added. He said that Jammu and Kashmir dispute is the unfinished agenda of the partition of the subcontinent and the rights and aspirations of the Kashmiri people were trampled upon by machinations and intrigue.

“Ironically, today as India deviously tries to convince the world that Jammu and Kashmir is but an undisputed part of her territory. But history remembers that it was India that took the Jammu and Kashmir dispute to the Security Council as a dispute yet to be resolved. There, the disputed status of Jammu and Kashmir was internationally recognized, and it was decided that the final disposition of the state shall be made through a free and impartial plebiscite under the UN auspices,” he added.

For more than seven decades now, he added that the Kashmiri people have been denied their inalienable right.

“Today, I asked the world if a country can be allowed to renege on its solemn commitments to the United Nations, break its own promises and blatantly violate international law just because they want to. I must emphasize here that the commitments under the UNSC resolutions are sacrosanct. They are neither surveilled to the whims of a jingoistic political party, nor diluted by the passage of time,” he said.

He added that India’s continued denial of the rights of the Kashmiri people is a wrongful illegal act no amount of diplomatic duplicity, or Indian state-perpetrated terror can change this fact. “India will have to fulfill its obligations to the Security Council by granting the Kashmiri people their lawful right to self-determination,” he asserted.

He pointed out that the occupied Kashmir has become an open prison. “I asked those who champion a rules-based international order and place a premium on protecting and promoting human rights. How can they turn a blind eye to this savagery? It is indeed, not wise to sacrifice these timeless principles for short-term interests. One cannot wax lyrical about international law and the UNSC resolutions in Europe in the European context, and then turn a blind eye to the violation of the same international law in the Kashmiri context,” Bilawal further stated.

He said that India’s unilateral and illegal actions of August 5, 2019, opened a new chapter of oppression India’s ultimate aim is to convert Kashmiris into a dispossessed and disempowered minority in their own land. He said that the fresh delimitations, domicile certificates to millions of outsiders, and addition of millions of temporary residents to the voters’ list are part of a well-thought-out strategy to change Kashmir’s demography and its political landscape.

“Pakistan out rightly rejects these unilateral and illegal steps. How can the world be a silent bystander when a large country usurps the rights guaranteed by the Security Council, and instead use brute force to suppress those rights? Isn’t it the same world that is upholding these principles elsewhere, while remaining completely oblivious to them in Kashmir?” he asked the world community.

He pointed out that the word “Pakistan is incomplete without Kashmir”, refers that the people of Pakistan and the people of Kashmir have a unique affinity based on geographical proximity, shared history, commonality of religion, shared joy, and shared sorrows.

Bilawal said that Pakistan wants good relations with its neighbors including India. However, good relations can only be achieved through dispute resolution, and not through dispute denialism, he stated. He added that durable peace in South Asia remains contingent upon the settlement of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute.

“Despite our consistent advocacy for constructive engagement and result-orientated dialogue to resolve all outstanding issues, including the core issue of Jammu and Kashmir India unabatedly remains hostile. Its regressive actions have in fact, further vitiated the environment and the onus therefore, remains on India to take the necessary steps to create an enabling environment conducive for a meaningful and result-oriented dialogue,” he added.

He further stated that India has also been trying to use the terrorism bogeyman to mask the indigenous Kashmiri struggle for the legitimate rights to self-determination. “It uses the same bogey to blame Pakistan and justify its brutal repression of the Kashmiri people.

This is a complete travesty of justice,” he said. He added that there is a clear distinction between terrorism and a people’s genuine quest for freedom. “Terrorism cannot be and should not be used as an excuse to deny the Kashmiri people their fundamental rights and their fundamental freedoms,” he asserted.

He also appealed to all men and women of conscience across the world to urge the occupying forces of India to rescind its unilateral and illegal actions; and to implement fully the relevant UNSC resolutions and allow the Kashmiri people to freely exercise their right to self-determination through a UN-supervised plebiscite.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2023