NEW YORK: Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said that Pakistan will negotiate to find a solution of the decades-old Kashmir dispute, but will not barter away the inalienable rights of Kashmiri people.
Addressing to a gathering of Pakistani-Americans on Friday, he said that Prime Minister Imran Khan was deeply committed to the just cause of the Kashmiris and that his stand on the issue was unequivocal.
“We will talk respectfully, but will not make a deal (on Kashmir),” the foreign minister told a cheering audience. He was answering a question about concerns being voiced over reported back-channel engagement with India on the decades-old dispute.
He also said that Pakistan was open to dialogue with India aimed at peacefully resolve all outstanding issues, including Kashmir. Past regimes in Pakistan, Qureshi said had put the Kashmir issue on back burner, but the present government had revived it, citing PM Imran Khan’s forceful address to the UN General Assembly in 2019.
Friday’s meeting with community members, held at the Pakistan Mission to the United Nations, began with recitation from the holy Quran. Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Munir Akram and Pakistan’s Ambassador to the United States Asad Majeed Khan were among those who also present.
Pakistani Consul General in New York, Ayesha Ali, welcomed the foreign minister, noting that he is the first dignitary from Pakistan to visit New York since the Covid-19 pandemic hit the world early in 2020.
On their part, the community members praised Pakistan’s strong advocacy of the Palestinian cause, the way it stood by the beleaguered people and highlighted their plight as they suffered under massive, 11-day Israeli bombardment that left nearly 250 people dead, including women and children.
FM Qureshi, who led the Pakistan delegation to May 19’s session of UN General Assembly on Palestine, said his purpose and that of other foreign ministers from Islamic countries, who have come to New York, was mainly to raise voice in the 193-member body in an effort to seek an end to the atrocities being committed against the Palestinians.
“By the grace of God,”, he said, “We succeeded in our first objective — a ceasefire.”
Replying to another question, FM Qureshi said there were deep similarities in Palestine and Kashmir issues– the people in both the entities were struggling for their right to self-determination; both suffered atrocities from their occupiers and both were resisting demographic changes and ethnic cleansing in their respective territories.
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