By Our Diplomatic
Correspondent
ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Tuesday expressed its “strong indignation” over India’s decision to hold a meeting of G20 in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).
The Foreign Office’s statement came after the Narendra Modi government announced the holding of the G20 Tourism Working Group meeting in Srinagar on 22-24 May 2023.
“Scheduling of two other meetings of a consultative forum on youth affairs (Y-20) in Leh and Srinagar in the IIOJK is equally disconcerting,” the FO said.
Pakistan said that India’s irresponsible move is the latest in a series of self-serving measures to perpetuate its illegal occupation of Jammu and Kashmir in sheer disregard of the UN Security Council resolutions and in violation of the principles of the UN Charter and international law.
“Pakistan vehemently condemns these moves.”
Such events, the FO said, cannot hide the reality of Jammu and Kashmir being an internationally recognised dispute that has remained on the agenda of the UNSC for over seven decades nor could such activities divert the international community’s attention from India’s brutal suppression of the people of IIOJK including illegal attempts to change the demographic composition of the occupied territory.
The statement added that India is again exploiting its membership of an important international grouping for advanc-ing its self-serving agenda by holding G20 events in IIOJK.
“For a country that has a grandiose vision about itself and its place in the world, India has once more demonstrated that it is unable to act as a responsible member of the international community,” the FO said.
Meanwhile, Ministry of Foreign Affairs has responded to British Home Secretary Suella Braverman’s remarks regarding Pakistani men, calling them discriminatory and xenophobic.
British minister draws huge ire for pushing extremist far-right deception as the Conservative Party leader hits at British Pakistani men while lamented authorities of turning a blind eye to signs of abuse involving young people.
In an interview, she was quoted as saying “white English girls, sometimes in care, sometimes who are in challenging circumstances, being pursued and raped and drugged and harmed by gangs of British-Pakistani men who have worked in child abuse rings or networks.” As Pakistanis called out Braverman, now Foreign Office responded and said her remarks painted a misleading picture. During the weekly presser, Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said Ms. Suella had erroneously branded the criminal behaviour of some individuals as a representation of the entire community.
British secy. fails to take note of the systemic racism and ghettoisation of communities and omits to recognise the tremendous cultural, economic, and political contributions that British-Pakistanis continue to make in British society.
