FO rejects Indian SC order on occupied Kashmir
Islamabad: Pakistan has rejected a fresh order by the Indian Supreme Court, which upheld its earlier ruling that endorsed the Modi government’s unilateral decision to revoke the special status of Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir by abrogating Article 370 of the Constitution.
According to Kashmir Media Service, Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch at her weekly press briefing in Islamabad said: “We reject the fresh order of the Indian Supreme Court just as we had rejected the earlier order of December 11, 2023. Two verdicts fail to recognise the internationally recognised disputed nature of Jammu and Kashmir… Indian Supreme Court judgments cannot distract the international community’s attention from the gross and systemic human rights violation in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir.”
She said that Kashmiris had an inalienable right to self-determination as enshrined in the United Nations Security Council resolutions.
India has no right to make unilateral decisions on the status of disputed territory against the will of parties in the dispute — Kashmiris and Pakistan, she added.
The spokesperson also welcomed an announcement by Ireland, Spain and Norway to recognise the Palestine state, following a similar announcement by Bahamas, Tobago, Jamaica and Barbados, and called it a milestone in the decades-old quest of the Palestinian people for their right to self-determination.