Pakistan rejects India's criticism on OIC's Kashmir resolution

Pakistan on Monday rejected India's statement on the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation's (OIC) Resolution on the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, a statement from the Foreign Office said.

A day earlier, the Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) "strongly" rejected OIC's criticism of its Kashmir policy, according to The Hindu.

“We strongly and categorically reject the factually incorrect, gratuitous and unwarranted references to India in resolutions adopted by the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) at the 47th CFM Session in Niamey, Republic of Niger, held on 27-28 November 2020," said the publication, citing Indian MEA.

Read more: Pakistan thanks OIC for steadfast support on Kashmir issue at 47th CFM session

The unanimously adopted resolution — at the 47th Session of OIC Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM), held in Niamey, Niger, on November 28 — is the collective voice of the Muslim Ummah, said the FO.

The statement from the Foreign Office highlighted that the OIC is the second-largest international organisation after the United Nations with 57 members and five observer states.

"Jammu and Kashmir is one of the oldest internationally recognised disputes on the agenda of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC)," the statement said.

It said that the matter remains unresolved because of India’s intransigence and unwillingness to implement relevant UNSC resolutions and its solemn commitments made to Pakistan, the Kashmiris, and the international community.

Read more: OIC deplores Indian state-sponsored terrorism against innocent Kashmiris

"The latest OIC resolution is another forceful repudiation of India’s completely flimsy and legally untenable contention that Jammu and Kashmir is its ‘internal’ matter," the statement said.

The Foreign Office said the resolution was further proof that India can neither hide its gross and systemic violations of human rights of the Kashmiri people and the denial of their inalienable right to self-determination nor can it escape international censure of its egregious behaviour.

Rather than dismissing the international community’s concerns as reflected in the OIC Resolution, India would be well-advised to pay heed and stop its state-terrorism in Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), the statement said.

Read more: India's Hindutva ideology is a threat to region's security, FM Qureshi warns OIC

It further called for India to end its illegal and forcible occupation of the disputed territory, and take concrete steps towards the solution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute per the UNSC resolutions and the wishes of the Kashmiri people.