Prime Minis¬ter Imran Khan and Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qure¬shi on Friday raised the Kash¬mir issue in their meetings with United Nations General Assem¬bly president Maria Espinosa, asking her to set up a commission to probe “rights abuses” in Kashmir and take steps for the implementation of the Security Council resolutions on the dispute.
The UNGA president is here on a five-day visit. This is the first visit by a UNGA president to Pakistan since 2010. It is also Espinosa’s first to any country in the Asia-Pacific region since her election last September. According to the Prime Minister’s Office, Khan drew the attention of the president to the massive “human rights violations” in Indian administered Jammu and Kashmir, “that have been documented in the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights report of June 2018” and demanded an “early establishment of a Commission of Inquiry to investigate these abuses, as recommended by the UN”.
It should be recalled that the first-ever UN human rights report on Kashmir — which was published last June — had called for a commission of inquiry to investigate allegations of human rights violations in “India-controlled Kashmir”.
ESPINOSA CALLS FOR PEACEFUL RESOLUTION OF ALL CONFLICTS
United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) President Maria Fernanda Espinosa Saturday called for peaceful resolution of all conflicts, including that of Kashmir.
She said she had been encouraged to see that the government of Prime Minister Imran Khan was aligned towards shaping a new future for the people of Pakistan.
The new future was based on combating poverty, corruption and opening up to investments and tourism, she said in an interview with Radio Pakistan. When asked about the Kashmir dispute and tension in relations between Pakistan and India, the UNGA president called for peaceful resolution of all conflicts, including that of Kashmir. She said Kashmir was a longstanding dispute and its solution called for dialogue. Agencies