ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: Pakistan has categorically rejected the Indian Defence Minister Rajnath Singh’s unwarranted comments regarding Gilgit-Baltistan (GB).
In a statement on Tuesday, the Foreign Office Spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri said that India has no locus standi whatsoever on the issue — historical, legal, or moral.
The Spokesperson said that gratuitous repetition of false claims by the RSS-BJP leaders, one after the other, for political point-scoring can neither change facts nor can it draw attention away from the reprehensible human rights violations being perpetrated against the Kashmiri people by Indian occupation forces in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).
Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri that Pakistan’s principled position on the Jammu & Kashmir dispute remains firmly anchored in the relevant United Nations Security Council Resolutions.
The Foreign Office Spokesperson said that administrative, political and economic reforms are a long-standing demand of the people of Gilgit-Baltistan. He said that the envisaged provisional reforms reflect the aspirations of the indigenous populace of Gilgit-Baltistan.
“Pakistan calls upon India to immediately end its illegal and forcible occupation of parts of Jammu & Kashmir,” he said.
The Spokesperson said that India must comply with its international obligations by allowing the Kashmiris to exercise their inalienable right to self-determination through a free and impartial plebiscite under the auspices of the United Nations as enshrined in the relevant UN Security Council resolutions.
