UN chief lauds Pakistan’s resolve for peaceful Kashmir settlement

Ban Ki-moon condemns Indian atrocities, offers to facilitate dialogue


Kamran Yousaf August 20, 2016
PHOTO: UN

ISLAMABAD: UN Secretary General Ban Ki-moon on Friday appreciated Pakistan’s commitment to a peaceful resolution of the Kashmir dispute, as Islamabad renewed its offer for talks with New Delhi to resolve the outstanding issue.

According to the Foreign Office, the UN chief, in a letter written in response to the one Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif sent to him, condemned the loss of life in the ongoing unrest in Indian Kashmir and offered his good offices to both Pakistan and India for the resolution of the long-running row.

Premier Nawaz, in his letter, had apprised the UN chief about the grave situation in Indian Kashmir where, according to him, large-scale rights violations are being committed by Indian security forces.

Responding to the letter, Ban Ki-moon “deplored the loss of life and hoped that all efforts will be made to avoid further violence,” the FO said. It added that the UN chief “once again offered his good offices to facilitate dialogue for a negotiated settlement of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute.”

“The UN secretary general also appreciates the continued commitment of Pakistan to the peaceful resolution of the Kashmir dispute for the sake of regional peace and security as the UN remains convinced that it is only through dialogue that the outstanding issues between Pakistan and India, including on Kashmir, can be addressed,” the statement further said.

The FO also announced that Pakistan has once again invited India’s foreign secretary to visit Islamabad by the end of this month for talks focusing exclusively on finding a solution to the Kashmir dispute.

The calculated move effectively rejects New Delhi’s demand that dialogue should be confined only to issues related to the ‘cross border terrorism’. The development means that any realistic hope for some kind of normalcy in otherwise tense relations between the nuclear-armed neighbours is all but over as India is unlikely to accept Pakistan’s ‘olive branch’.



The proposal for the foreign secretary-level meeting first came from Pakistan. On August 15, Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary Aizaz Ahmed Chaudhry wrote a letter to his Indian counterpart S Jaishankar inviting him for a visit to Islamabad for dedicated talks on Kashmir issue in the wake of recent unrest in the valley.

Two days later, the Indian foreign secretary through the country’s high commissioner conveyed his readiness to travel to Pakistan but with a condition that agenda of the talks must be ‘cross border terrorism’.

After examining India’s reply, Pakistan stuck to its agenda as well as its offer of talks. “The Indian High Commissioner was called in today (Friday) by the foreign secretary and a reply to the letter of the Indian foreign secretary was handed to him,” said the FO statement.

In his reply, Aizaz invited the Indian foreign secretary to visit Islamabad by the end of this month to discuss “the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, with a view to finding a fair and just solution, as per the United Nations Security Council resolutions and aspirations of the people of Jammu and Kashmir.”

The foreign secretary also called for putting an immediate end to the human rights violations against the innocent people of Indian Kashmir, who, according to Pakistan, are struggling for their right to self-determination. He also demanded provision of medical facilities to the injured in the Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir, including the permission for doctors and paramedics to travel.

Published in The Express Tribune, August 20th, 2016.

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