Pakistan has strongly rejected a reference to Pakistan in the joint statement issued by India and the United States after their 2+2 ministerial dialogue as “unwarranted and misleading”. “We reject the Pakistan-specific reference in the joint statement, issued by India and the US after their 2+2 ministerial dialogue, as unwarranted and misleading,” the Foreign Office said in a statement issued on Wednesday. “We take strong exception to Pakistan-related assertions made in the selective and one-sided joint statement, devoid of meeting the ‘objectivity criteria’. Failing to take cognisance of the grave humanitarian and human rights situation in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu & Kashmir (IIOJK), further aggravated by India’s unilateral and illegal measures of 5 August 2019, is tantamount to abdication of international responsibility,” it maintained. Gratuitous and self-serving references in joint statements cannot mask the fact that it is India that continues to be the nerve centre of state-terrorism in the region including Occupied Kashmir, besides being a safe haven for the perpetrators of hate crimes against Muslims and Islamophobia, said the foreign office. By seeking to project itself as ‘victim’ of terrorism, India cannot divert attention from the gross human rights violations being perpetrated by Indian occupation forces and the resulting humanitarian crisis in IIOJK, it added. It is important that partner countries take an objective view of the issues of peace and security in South Asia and refrain from endorsing positions that are one-sided and divorced from ground realities, the FO stressed. Also, Pakistan on Wednesday categorically rejected the Indian government’s illegal amendments in land ownership laws in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) promulgated under ‘J-K Re-organisation (Adaptation of Central Laws) Third Order, 2020’. “The highly condemnable Indian action is yet another clear violation of the UN Security Council resolutions, bilateral agreements between Pakistan and India, and international law,” the Foreign Office said in a statement.