At OIC contact group meeting, Pakistan calls on India to restore Kashmir’s special status

Delegations from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia and other member states attend OIC Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir meeting in Banjul. Member states call for early and peaceful resolution to Kashmir dispute along the lines of OIC’s agenda UN resolutions, says foreign ministry

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Ishaq Dar stressed on India to release prisoners, lift curbs on political parties and restore the special status of the internationally disputed Jammu and Kashmir territory, the foreign ministry said on Monday, on the sidelines of the Organization of Islamic Cooperation’s (OIC) summit in The Gambia.

These views were expressed by Dar as he led Pakistan’s delegation to a meeting of the OIC’s Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir on Sunday in Banjul. The meeting reviewed the political and security environment in Jammu and Kashmir, and took stock of the “grim human rights situation” in the territory, Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) said. The meeting was attended by member states of the contact group such as Saudi Arabia, Türkiye, Niger, Azerbaijan and officials of the OIC-Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission.

Kashmir has long been a flashpoint between India and Pakistan, both of which claim all of the region but administer only parts of it. On Aug. 5 2019, Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi withdrew Indian-administered Kashmir’s autonomy in a move that was seen by analysts as a strategy to tighten his grip over the territory. The decision provoked outrage in Pakistan and the downgrading of diplomatic ties and suspension of bilateral trade between the two countries.

“He [Dar] also stressed that India must release all the political prisoners, lift curbs on the outlawed political parties, revoke the illegal and unilateral actions of 5 August 2019 and the subsequent steps aimed at demographic change and political engineering, and implement the relevant UN Security Council resolutions,” MoFA said.

Dar informed the group that India was “systematically denying the Kashmiri people their fundamental rights and freedoms,” adding that Indian authorities had created “an environment of fear and intimidation” in the disputed territory.

The delegations from member countries stressed the importance of the resolution of the Kashmir dispute along the lines of the OIC’s agenda, the foreign ministry said. They expressed support for the legitimate struggle of Kashmiris for the realization of their right to self-determination in accordance with the relevant UN Security Council resolutions, the ministry said.

“They called for an early and peaceful resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute,” MoFA said.

The OIC has 57 member countries, making it the second largest intergovernmental organization after the United Nations. The OIC contact group on Jammu and Kashmir was established in 1994 to support the struggle of the people of Indian-administered Kashmir, including their right to self-determination, to voice the organization’s position, and coordinate joint actions on the dispute.

Dar is in Banjul to attend an OIC summit being held against a backdrop of widespread anger over Israel’s military actions in Gaza. The Jewish state has killed nearly 35,000 Palestinians and caused massive destruction of hospitals, schools and residential neighbourhoods in the densely populated area since Oct. 7.

The Pakistani deputy prime minister arrived in Gambia on Wednesday to present his country’s perspective on a wide range of issues, including the war in Gaza and the rights situation in Indian-administered Kashmir.

 

[Satya Dev]

We should write to OIC that - the lands of Jammu, Kashmir (including POK) & Ladakh (including Gilgit, Baltisthan & AkshayChinh) were, are and will always remain integral & inalienable part of India. Not only that but before 1947 even the lands now being called Pakistan & Bangladesh belonged to India.

 

[Shafted mohammed]

Honestly OIC is also deeply disturbed by these beggars making unrealistic demand. Time has come for Pakistan to hand over the GB and POK to India. These beggars are soon going to break apart.

 

[abhinav srivastava]

OIC should focus on turning secular, removing kaffir hatred and kaffir killing. Kashmir issue is out of their domain they should not focus on it.

 

[Bard of Anarchy]

We should write to OIC that - the lands of Jammu, Kashmir (including POK) & Ladakh (including Gilgit, Baltisthan & AkshayChinh) were, are and will always remain integral & inalienable part of India. Not only that but before 1947 even the lands now being called Pakistan & Bangladesh belonged to India.

Why should we care about these clowns, just ignore them.

 

[সৌম্যদীপ]

Pakistan has significant influence in the OIC due to status as a founding member and a nuclear power. Turkey also sees potential in building partnerships with India's momin neighbors who harbor anti-Hindu sentiments, leveraging that for trade and weapons sale. I also strongly believe China & US discretely partnering with their cause to keep India under check. Truth is we currently don't have the power to enforce a change in stance even of friendly Muslim allies. We urgently need to take control of our online narratives. Preventing anti-Hindu sentiments spreading through the internet and evolving into a broader pan-Arabic issue.

 

[Narine Singh]

If you really want to plumb the conscience, the moral compass, and love in the Ummah for fellow Muslims, just look at how they treat their own people. The OIC who putatively represents the Ummah, would like the world to believe the lie that they care about one another, love one another, and that love is sacrificial, sincere, (no quid pro quo necessary), and based on truth and Justice, and that on this foundation the Ummah securely rests.

That is the biggest lie, about this civilization, that lost its way at the end of the Ottoman Empire, (their best hope, yet so little was accomplished), and the rise of the selfish oil-rich states in the Ummah. Of the innumerable things that confront this civilization, most of these are bound as burdensome religious and cultural baggage upon the backs of the individual believers, that no matter how loudly they cry freedom, they are and have been made, by the true and living God, judicially blind and paralyzed, in the chaos of their own beliefs.

What is the education levels among men and women in the Ummah (and the paltry representations of brilliance, icons here and there, is not the reality in Pakistan, Afghanistan, (and, for that matter, all the stans) and throughout the Middle East, and worse yet in Africa. Your literacy levels are very low, and industrialization and development are hindered by this.

After all these years, with all this oil wealth, where are your Ivy League Schools, and schools of excellence, where are you schools of engineering, and where are your Arab-Muslim banks, to bankroll your development? When you have a little surplus funds, instead of investing it in those disciplines that generate income, (nor the heroin “business”), you invest it in weapons to fight one another, destroy each other, and then you think that you stand on such high moral and exemplary ground, to lecture countries like India.

Raking up the Kashmir issue, and casting opprobrium upon India, but at the same time, ignoring the cries of oppression fr okay your Muslim people in PoK, and other parts of Pakistan, the war between Pakistan and Afghanistan, shows how disingenuous that OIC is, and worse how hypocritical it is. The OIC is a shame to the people they claim to represent.

Countries in the Ummah, will not accept in their midst “Palestinian” refugees; the Syrian refugees (millions of them) were also rejected, but the enemy Christian’s accepted them, fed them, and settled them at great cost; and, other than buying weapons (not manufacturing them) to fight one another, when you are not fighting little Israel, what are you doing for the Ummah, other that making high-sounding pronouncements.

It is 2024, and you do not even manufacture motorcycles, nor automobiles, nor a thousand other consumer goods, and don’t say “we are getting bullet trains”, because these are Chinese, not yours. But your facade is good; your pretence to greatness is compelling to the mostly blind among you; but you are a failed civilization.

You need a ground-up rebuilding, and Ibam not talking about a renovation of Mecca an Medina. You need to end the Arab pettiness, that saps your energies, and spreads discouragement. Find out what you need to focus on for development and prosperity; for this ask your own Muslims who leave for Germany, France, the US, and the UK, and they will tell you, so you would know what developments and improvements could be invested in, in your own countries, so your people do not have to leave, work hard, and pay taxes to those terrible and hated Christian countries.

Other than the UN, the OIC has proven to be the next most irrelevant organization in history. How useless? It never adjudicated Pakistan’s murder of 3.0 million Bengali Muslims. And this is only one of the long litany of accusations against the OIC. It is time to put your own house in order. India will fix its own. We do not need you!!