Daily Times

While responding to reports of opening of ‘Free Balochistan’ office in New Delhi, the Foreign Office said on Thursday that Indian interference in Pakistan was an established fact which truly indicates its hegemonic designs in the region.

“India needs to act as a responsible member of the international community and desist from such actions,” Foreign Office Spokesman Dr Faisal told a weekly press briefing. He said the case of Kulbhushan Jadhav was an evidence of Indian terrorism and espionage activities. He said Pakistan had already shared the issue with the UN and the international community.

“Indian actions are not only against inter-state norms but also a threat to regional peace and tranquillity,” the spokesman said, adding that Pakistan was fully equipped to defend itself against such acts.

Dr Faisal said Pakistan’s case in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against Jadhav was ‘very strong’, because he was apprehended from within the Pakistani territory.

He said the UN secretary general’s endorsement of the report by the Office of Human Rights Commission on Kashmir was the biggest success of Pakistan in 70 years in the domain of Kashmir. “The international support that we gained on Kashmir is the biggest success of our foreign policy in seven decades,” he said, and added that the OHCHR report is ‘another blow to India’s farcical constructs about IHK’.

The spokesman mentioned that the OHCHR report has quoted official Indian sources including Indian parliament, Supreme Court and external affairs ministry for not giving permission to the inquiry commission for a visit. On the contrary, he said, Pakistan welcomed the visit by the UN commission of inquiry, as recommended in the report, to both Azad Jammu and Kashmir and the Indian-occupied Kashmir. He said the OHCHR report had greatly upset the Indian efforts to project that all was well in the occupied valley. It was the first report of its kind that acknowledged and documented India’s widest human rights violations, he said.

On India’s test-launch of Brah Mose supersonic missile, the spokesman said there was a need for restraint and responsibility to control arms race in South Asia.

Condemning the recent bombings in Peshawar and Mastung, Dr Faisal said that nation would not be deterred by such attacks and the democratic process would continue. He thanked the nations that offered condolences to Pakistan over the deadly attacks.

Published in Daily Times, July 20^th 2018.