Rehman Malik urges PM Imran to take Kashmir case to ICC

Malik blames India for Pakistan's listing on FATF's grey list

Pakistan People's Party (PPP) Senator Rehman Malik on Thursday penned a letter to Prime Minister Imran Khan urging him to take the Kashmir case to the International Criminal Court (ICC).

In his letter, Malik noted that the country is passing through testing times after Pakistan was placed in the Financial Action Task Force's (FATF) grey list - affecting the inflow of foreign investment in the country.

He also added that financial institutions such as the International Monetary Fund (IMF), World Bank, Asian Bank etc have made it harder for Pakistan to obtain loans.

"There is no doubt that the conspiracy engineered by India through the blame game ultimately resulted in the placing of Pakistan in FATF's grey list that is one of the components of hybrid war being backed by India," his letter read.

Malik blamed India's "well-planned lobbying" for failing to secure a minimum of 16 votes by member states to file a resolution on Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) at the United Nations Human Rights Council in Geneva.

"Without going into the blame game, I would like to state that over the last few decades Pakistan has been pushed into isolation by well-planned Indian lobbying at the diplomatic front," he said.

'Diplomatic triumph’ as OIC urges India to restore Kashmir’s special status

The PPP Senator also noted that Pakistan had failed to bring India to the International Court of Justice (ICJ) for a second time, adding "Modi managed his way out as a Chief of Rashtriya Svayem Sevak Sangh (RSS)".

He also quoted PM Imran's statement in New York regarding the silence of the international community over the sufferings faced by the people of Kashmir, referring to it as "intentional".

The PPP senator maintained that the premier's speech at the UN on Thursday would not yield any relief to the people in IOK and urged PM Imran to appeal to the international community to pressurise Modi into lifting the curfew in the occupied valley within 48 hours.

Malik concluded his letter by urging the prime minister to take the Kashmir case to the ICC and to drag Modi as a "war criminal" for his decision to illegally revoke the special status of IOK.

The senator mentioned that he had previously advocated his point of view in the Senate Standing Committee for Foreign Affairs in the presence of Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi.

He noted in his letter that the procedure for referring the case to ICC under the Rome Statute is as under:

"Any individual, group or State can send information to the OTP regarding alleged crimes falling under the jurisdiction of the Court. To date, the OTP has received more than 12,000 of such communications, which can form the initial basis of the Office's preliminary examinations.

The OTP conducts a preliminary examination to decide whether there is a reasonable basis to initiate an investigation."