Skip to main content

PPP scorns government's reaction to Trump’s offer to mediate on Kashmir

ISLAMABAD: The Pakistan Peoples Party has disapproved of Islamabad’s move to welcome US President Donald Trump’s offer for mediation on Kashmir, saying that the enthusiasm being shown by the government was misplaced as Washington was certain to favour India.

“President Trump’s role as a mediator in the Kashmir dispute will undoubtedly favour India. The tone and tenor of his press conferences in India clearly indicate that Washington wants New Delhi to act as a policeman in the region,” former Senate chairman Mian Raza Rabbani said in a statement on Wednesday.

He pointed out that during his visit, Trump had made no statement regarding the lockdown and genocide being committed in India-held Kashmir. “Those who seek a mediator’s role for Trump, forget reality. He is the person who recognised Jerusalem as the capital of Israel. He is the person who recognised and legitimised the Israeli occupation of the Golan Heights.

“The recent US plan for solution of the dispute between Palestinians and Israelis robs the Palestinian people of their historic and international rights and clearly weighs in favour of Israel. Is this the type of mediation that the government wants for Kashmir,” Senator Rabbani said.

The foreign minister had said in his statement on Tuesday that the US president, in line with his assurance held out to Prime Minister Imran Khan last year, had taken up the Kashmir issue with the Indian prime minister.

“Keeping in view the alarming situation in occupied Jammu and Kashmir and the world reaction to it, the fresh offer for mediation is a negation of India’s narrative,” Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said in his statement.

He said the Indian media had tried to use President Trump’s press conference for its objectives, but he minced no words in praising Pakistan’s role in the war on terrorism and calling Imran Khan “my friend”.

FO SUMMONS INDIAN DIPLOMAT: The Foreign Office summoned a senior diplomat from the Indian High Commission on Wednesday to register Islamabad’s protest over ceasefire violations by Indian forces along the Line of Control (LoC) in Nezapir sector on Tuesday (Feb 25).

A 40-year-old civilian, Muhammad Bashir, resident of Mandhar village, sustained serious injuries during the indiscriminate and unprovoked shelling.

The Indian occupation forces have been persistently targeting populated areas along the Line of Control and the Working Boundary (WB) since 2017. They have committed 384 ceasefire violations so far this year alone and a total of 1,970 over the past three years.

The deliberate targeting of populated areas is deplorable and contrary to human dignity, international human rights and humanitarian laws, the Indian diplomat was told. “The ceasefire violations are a threat to regional peace and security and may lead to a strategic miscalculation.”

Pakistan urged India to respect the 2003 ceasefire arrangement, investigate them, instruct its forces to respect the ceasefire in letter and in spirit and maintain peace on the LoC and the WB.

It was emphasised that by raising tensions along the LoC, India won’t be able to divert attention from the worsening human rights situation in occupied Jammu and Kashmir. Islamabad called upon New Delhi to allow the United Nations Military Observers Group to play its role in defusing tensions in accordance with the UN Security Council resolutions.

Published in Dawn, February 27th, 2020



from The Dawn News - Home https://ift.tt/32CAiaU
via IFTTT
Labels:

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Trump says he urged team to ‘slow’ COVID-19 testing

US President Donald Trump said Saturday he was encouraging health officials in his administration to slow down coronavirus testing, arguing that increased tests lead to more cases being discovered. The president has claimed falsely on several occasions that surges of COVID-19 in several states can be explained by greater numbers of diagnostic tests. At his first rally since the outbreak forced nationwide shutdowns in March, Trump told the crowd in Tulsa, Oklahoma that testing was a “double-edged sword.” The United States — which has more deaths and cases than any other country — has carried out more than 25 million coronavirus tests, placing it outside the top 20 countries in the world, per capita. “Here is the bad part: When you do testing to that extent, you are going to find more people, you will find more cases,” Trump argued. “So I said to my people ‘slow the testing down.’ They test and they test.” It was not clear from Trump’s tone if he was playing to the crowd, who ...
Post a Comment
Read more

IT ministry forms panel to review social media rules

ISLAMABAD: While uproar against the new rules to regulate social media continues from various segments of society, including parliamentarians, the Pakistan Federal Union of Journalists (PFUJ) and civil society, the information technology ministry on Friday formed a committee to review the rules. The federal cabinet approved the rules on Feb 11, but later after opposition from various quarters, including companies that manage different social media platforms, the prime minister announced that a fresh consultation process would be launched over the Citizens Protection (Against Online Harm) Rules 2020. The committee formed by the IT ministry is headed by Pakistan Telecommunication Authority Chairman Amir Azeem Bajwa while its members are Eazaz Aslam Dar, additional secretary of IT; Tania Aidrus, member of the Strategic Reforms Imple­mentation Unit, Prime Minister Office; and Dr Arslan Khalid, focal person on digital media at the PM Office. Federal Minister for Human Rights Dr Shireen Ma...
Post a Comment
Read more

IS confirms Baghdadi’s death, vows revenge

Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi.—AP BEIRUT: The Islamic State militant group confirmed the death of its leader Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi in a statement on Thursday and named his replacement as Abu Ibrahim al-Hashimi al-Quraishi. “We mourn you ... commander of the faithful,” said Abu Hamza al-Quraishi — presented as the group’s new spokesman — in an audio statement. Baghdadi, who led IS since 2014 and was the world’s most wanted man, was killed in a US special forces raid in Syria’s province of Idlib on Sunday. The group also confirmed the killing in another raid the following day of the group’s previous spokesman Abu Hassan al-Muhajir. The statement said the group’s legislative and consultative body convened after the 48-year-old Iraqi-born jihadist chief’s death. “The Islamic State shura council convened immediately after confirming the martyrdom of Sheikh Abu Bakr al-Baghdadi, and the elders of the holy warriors agreed” on a replacement, said the seven-minute message. Little is known abou...
Post a Comment
Read more