ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Thursday called on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to fulfill its responsibility under the UN Charter and act urgently to establish a ceasefire and end the massacre of the Palestinian people. “The siege of Gaza must be lifted to prevent further deaths and suffering from starvation and inaccessibility to decent medical care.” Pakistan is resolute in its unwavering diplomatic, moral, political and humanitarian support to the besieged people of Gaza,” Foreign Ministry spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said at her weekly press briefing.
She called for the immediate reversal of the decision of some countries to suspend UNRWA funding and reiterated that Pakistan supports the OIC’s condemnation of the continued Israeli military aggression against Gaza and the expansion of indiscriminate attacks on the city of Rafah. She said the OIC had raised the alarm about the expansion and escalation of the pace of Israeli aggression and warned against an unacceptable attempt to forcefully displace the Palestinian people from their own land. “Israel’s ruthless attack against 1.4 million displaced people in Rafah is in blatant defiance of the interim measures outlined by the International Court of Justice in its interim order,” she noted.
Highlighting the issue of Kashmir, the spokesperson said that India’s campaign to curb dissent in India’s illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) is in full swing. “On February 10, 2024, the Indian National Investigation Agency (NIA) conducted several raids on 15 properties of Jammat-i-Islami in Kashmir in various cities. The raids were part of an ongoing crackdown on Kashmiri political organisations. Jamaat-i-Islami is one of the six political organizations already banned by India,” she said. The spokesperson called on the Indian authorities to end the intimidation and persecution of Kashmiri political activists and parties and also called for the release of all Kashmiri political prisoners and activists. “Regarding Yasin Malik, we have expressed our grave concerns about his prolonged and continued imprisonment.
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We have condemned the illegal and fictitious cases in which he was framed and also rejected the basis for awarding the death penalty,” she added. “Pakistan will continue to extend political, diplomatic and moral support to our Kashmiri brothers and sisters for a just and peaceful settlement of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in accordance with the UN Security Council resolutions,” she reiterated. “We have always expressed our concern over the Indian military presence in India’s illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir. There are already about a million Indian forces in India’s illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir and these forces are responsible for suppressing the people of Jammu and Kashmir.
In this regard, we also believe that the measures taken by the Indian authorities in 2019 were illegal and the decision of the Supreme Court of India to legalize their illegal actions is unacceptable,” she continued. Briefing the media about the diplomatic engagements that took place last week, she mentioned the 14th round of the Pakistan-Russia Strategic Stability Advisory Group held on February 7, in which the two sides discussed issues related to international security, regional stability and various aspects. arms control, disarmament and non-proliferation. Biological, space and information security issues were also discussed, as well as new and emerging technologies, including the military use of artificial intelligence. Spokesman Baloch also briefed the media about the recent formal establishment of diplomatic relations between Pakistan and the Dominican Republic as a joint communique was signed by Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Ambassador Munir Akram and his Dominican counterpart Ambassador Philbert Aaron.
