Next session of OIC CFM to be held in Pakistan: FM Qureshi

OIC unanimously passing a resolution on IIOJK was a triumph for Pakistan, the foreign minister asserts

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Monday said that the next session of the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) Council of Foreign Ministers' meeting (CFM) would be held in Pakistan.

The foreign minister had recently attended the 47th Session of the OIC CFM in Niamey, Niger wherein the 57-members and five observer states unanimously adopted the Pakistan-sponsored resolution to designate March 15 as the “International Day to Combat Islamophobia”.

As the prospective CFM Chair, Pakistan had also become a member of the six-member OIC executive committee for the next three years.

Pakistan is a founding member of the OIC - the second largest inter-governmental organisation after the United Nations - and it has always played an important role in promoting the role of the organisation as a collective voice of the Muslim community around the world.

The OIC had also a unanimously adopted a resolution condemning India’s illegal action of revoking Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir’s (IIOJK) autonomous status and steps to change the demography of the Muslim-majority region.

FM Qureshi said that the OIC unanimously passing a resolution on IIOJK was a triumph of Pakistan.

"The 57-member countries of the OIC are unanimously accepting Pakistan's stance on blatant human rights violations in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir," he asserted.

Qureshi added that false propaganda was done before the session of OIC Council of Foreign Ministers that Kashmir was not on the agenda of the moot. "If that was the case, then how did the OIC pass a resolution on Kashmir?" the FM asked.

Regarding relations with the UAE, Qureshi said Pakistan enjoyed excellent and strong relations with the brotherly country.