At UNGA, Pakistan PM Sharif rakes up Kashmir issue, says 'We look for peace…'
Addressing the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA), Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said, “We look for peace with all our neighbours, including India. Sustainable peace and stability in South Asia however remain contingent upon a just and lasting solution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute…”
Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif raked up the Kashmir issue at the 77th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on Friday.
Addressing the session, Sharif said, “We look for peace with all our neighbours, including India. Sustainable peace and stability in South Asia however remain contingent upon a just and lasting solution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute…”
Sharif said that at the heart of this long-standing dispute lay the denial of the inalienable right of the Kashmiri people to self-determination. He again raised the issue of the abrogation of Article 370 and Article 35 A by the Narendra Modi government on August 5th 2019.
Also Read| Polite tweet from PM Modi, Shehbaz Sharif goes into convulsions over Kashmir
"India must take credible steps to create an enabling environment for constructive engagement. We are neighbours and we are there forever, the choice is ours whether we live in peace or keep on fighting with each other," the Pakistani Prime Minister further said at the 77th UNGA session on Friday.
Shehbaz Sharif said that India and Pakistan had three wars from 1947 onwards and as a consequence, only misery, poverty and unemployment increased on both sides.
“It is now up to us to resolve our differences, our problems, and our issues through peaceful negotiations and discussions,” he added.
Shehbaz Sharif, who became Pakistan's Prime Minister in April this year, has raked up the Kashmir issue many times and has also appealed for peaceful ties with India.
His comments at the 77th session of the UNGA came two days after India hit out at Pakistan foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto for raising the Kashmir issue.
Also Read| India slams Pakistan on minority rights: ‘Ironic that Islamabad even raises it’
At the UN, Bilawal Bhutto also claimed that India was transforming into a Hindu supremacist state.
Censuring the Pakistani foreign minister's remarks on Kashmir, India's Joint Secretary of UN Economic and Social Srinivas Gotru said on Wednesday that the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh “were, our and will always be an integral and inalienable part of India, irrespective of what the representative of Pakistan believes or covets.”
"We call on Pakistan to stop cross-border terrorism so that our citizens can exercise their right to life, and liberty. We hope that they will desist from attempts to abuse and politicize such meetings," Gotru added.
