Daily Times

Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has urged the United Nations to exercise its legal and political authority to ensure full implementation of its resolutions on Kashmir.

The foreign minister said this while addressing a ceremony in connection with the 75th anniversary of the United Nations here on Friday.

The foreign minister said it is deplorable that universal ideals of the UN Charter are continuously being violated and defied with impunity nowhere more egregiously than in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).

“Led by ‘Hindutva’ ideology, the BJP-RSS regime in India is incessantly resorting to aggressive posturing against Pakistan and other neighbouring countries that seriously imperils regional peace and security,” he added.

Qureshi said, “The UN Day reminds us of our collective responsibility to abide by the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and lends an opportunity to renew our commitment to the noble ideals enshrined in it.” He reiterated Pakistan’s firm and abiding commitment to multilateralism, with the United Nations playing a central role.

He said that Pakistan’s contribution to the UN Peacekeeping is one of the most visible manifestations of our commitment to multilateralism. “Pakistan is one of the longest-serving and largest contributors to the UN peacekeeping. Since 1960, we have contributed over 200,000 peacekeepers to 46 Peacekeeping Missions around the world.”

Qureshi said Pakistan also continues to co-host one of the oldest Peacekeeping Missions – the UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan. He said Pakistan also continues to host 3 million registered and unregistered Afghan refugees, which remains one of the most protracted refugee crises in the world.

While talking about the coronavirus pandemic, the foreign minister said that Pakistan is one of the few countries which have successfully restricted its spread. He said the government followed a strategy of “smart lockdowns” to ensure that we save people from dying from the virus, and from dying from hunger.

He said in the same vein, Pakistan was also able to combat the threat of desert locust, the worst of its kind in more than 25 years.

He commended the role of the World Health Organisation (WHO), UN Food and Agriculture Organisation and other financial institutions in helping the government to calibrate its response for overcoming these two emergencies, simultaneously.