OIC envoy on Kashmir to visit Pakistan this week

Ambassador Yousef Aldobeay, the special envoy of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Jammu and Kashmir, will arrive in the federal capital on Sunday on a six-day visit, the foreign ministry said in a statement on Saturday.

During his stay in Pakistan, Aldobeay, along with OIC’s Assistant Secretary General for Humanitarian Affairs Ambassador Tarig Bakhit and other senior officials, will hold talks with Pakistani officials and Kashmir leaders, besides meet the victims of the Indian violations of the Line of Control (LoC) ceasefire.

The OIC special envoy’s discussions in Pakistan would focus on peace and security, human rights, humanitarian and legal aspects of the grave situation in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), according to the foreign ministry statement.

“The OIC special envoy for Jammu and Kashmir, Ambassador Yousef Aldobeay, will be visiting Pakistan and the Azad Jammu and Kashmir from November 7-12, 2021,” it said. “His visit will reinforce the centrality of a just settlement of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute to lasting peace in South Asia.”

During his visit to AJK, the envoy would interact with a cross-section of the Kashmiri society, including the true representatives of the Kashmiri people, the foreign ministry said.

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The delegation will also visit a model village, housing the Kashmiris, who have been forced from their homes by the Indian occupation forces in the IIOJK, and meet with the victims of India’s cross-LoC violations, including women and children.

“These engagements will provide the special envoy a first-hand account of the gravity of the situation on the ground in the IIOJK and along the LoC,” the ministry said, adding that the presence of the assistant secretary general was particularly significant in the context of last year’s Niamey declaration.

At the 47th session of the Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) in Niamey, Niger in November last year, the OIC had called for examining and analysing the egregious violations of international human rights and humanitarian standards in the IIOJK with particular reference to the Covid-19 pandemic.

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Established by the 14th OIC Summit in Makkah in 2019, the OIC’s special envoy on Jammu and Kashmir has played an important role in steering the organisation’s principled position on this issue. The special envoy had earlier visited Pakistan and AJK in March 2020.

He presented his first report to the 47th CFM, in Niamey. The report reaffirmed the OIC’s support to the legitimate struggle of the Kashmiri people for their inalienable right to self-determination and recommended intensifying coordination between the OIC states to support the Kashmir cause.

“Pakistan greatly values the OIC’s principled and steadfast stance on the Jammu and Kashmir dispute. As a collective voice of over 1.2 billion Muslims across the world, the OIC has led the way on this critical issue for the Ummah,” the foreign ministry statement concluded.