OIC team to visit Pakistan, AJK tomorrow

Assessment of rights violations in held Kashmir major reason for visit

ISLAMABAD: The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) will send a team comprising members of its high-ranking Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission (IPHRC) to Pakistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) between March 27 and 29 to assess the human rights situation there.



IPHRC Chairperson Med S Kaggwa will head the eight-member delegation belonging to eight different OIC countries, an official statement said on Saturday.

The delegation will visit AJK to gain firsthand understanding of the Kashmir dispute, besides visiting refugee camps in held Kashmir, it said.

The delegation will also call on Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif, PM’s Foreign Affairs Adviser Sartaj Aziz and others. It will hold meetings with AJK’s president and PM also.



“The IPHRC requested the Indian authorities for access to occupied Kashmir to assess the human rights situation there. However, India has not responded to the IPHRC request to date. Last year, in the wake of Indian brutalities since July 2016, UN High Commissioner for Human Rights also offered to send a fact-finding mission.

Published in The Express Tribune, March 26^th, 2017.