OIC consistently supports Pakistan on Kashmir issue

FO Spokesperson Farooqui says a special session of the OIC FMs is planned

ISLAMABAD: The Foreign Office said on Thursday the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) consistently supported Pakistan on the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, and the government was working to utilise the forum to highlight the worsening human rights and humanitarian situation in occupied territory.

Speaking at the weekly briefing, the newly-appointed spokesperson, Aisha Farooqui, said that a special session of the OIC foreign ministers was also envisaged, for which the necessary work was under way.

Spokesperson Farooqui explained that Pakistan had offered to hold the 48th session of OIC Foreign Ministers in 2021, adding that the 47th session of the ministerial meeting was due to take place in Niger in April this year.

She maintained that the OIC had consistently supported Pakistan on the Jammu and Kashmir dispute. “Two meetings of the OIC Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir were convened, in the immediate aftermath of August 5, in which the Foreign Minister participated,” she said.

The Foreign Office spokesperson was referring to Indian government’s decision of abrogating the special status of the occupied Kashmir on August 5, 2019, and imposing a strict lockdown in the region along with internet and telephone blockade and restrictions on public movement.

The spokesperson said that the foreign ministers of Saudi Arabia, Turkey, Afghanistan and others attended the meeting in New York on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly, which issued a strong ministerial communique.

“I also want to bring to your attention to the OIC’s Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission which recently held an unprecedented public session on human rights situation in IOJ&K,” Farooqui told reporters.

“We are working to optimally utilise all the OIC mechanisms to highlight the worsening human rights and humanitarian situation in the IOJ&K. In this context, a special session of OIC Foreign Ministers’ is also envisaged, for which work remains in progress,” she added.