OIC supports peace process: India, Pakistan urged to solve issues
By Our Correspondent
UNITED NATIONS, Sept 24: The Organization of Islamic Conference on Friday expressed its strong support to the ongoing peace process between Pakistan and India, and urged both countries to make it “irreversible” and result-oriented.
In a joint communiqué, issued following a meeting of OIC foreign ministers at the sidelines of UN General Assembly’s debate, OIC encouraged the two sides to maintain regular contacts at the highest level and to implement the agreed confidence-building measures (CBM’s), including steps to ameliorate the lives of the Kashmiri people, promotion of bilateral trade, and people to people contact, in order to foster improvement of relations between the two countries.
The meeting called upon the OIC and the United Nations to help the peace process by all possible means.
Pakistan was represented by Makhdoom Khusro Bakhtyar, minister of state for foreign affairs at the meeting which was also attended by chairman of All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) Mir Waiz Omar Farooq.
The OIC reaffirmed its support to the people of Jammu and Kashmir for their legitimate right to self-determination in accordance with the relevant UN resolutions and the aspirations of the Kashmiri people.
It called for respect of the human rights of the Kashmiri people and the ending of their continuous violations. It urged India to end human rights violations against the Kashmiri people, and allow international human rights organizations to verify the condition of human rights in occupied Kashmir.
“The meeting, taking note of Pakistan-India joint statement issued after the meeting between the president of Pakistan and the prime minister of India in New York on Sept 24, 2004 and in New Delhi on April 18, 2005, stressed that ongoing dialogue process should lead to substantive progress for the resolution of the core dispute of Jammu & Kashmir in accordance with the aspirations of the Kashmiri people, and their association with the dialogue process.”
“The meeting expressed its serious concern on the building of the fence along the Line of Control (LoC) in occupied Kashmir by India in contravention of international and bilateral agreements.”
The OIC meeting called upon the international community, particularly the United Nations and United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) to take note of the Indian actions and ensure respect and implementation of all international and bilateral agreements on LoC.”
The foreign ministers meeting reaffirmed its resolve to combat all forms and manifestations of terrorism, including state terrorism, and its determination to participation in the multilateral global efforts to eradicate this menace, rejected selectivity and double standards in combating terrorism, and any attempts to link terrorism to a specific religion, culture, community or country.
REFORM: The OIC meeting called for a comprehensive reform of the Security Council in all its aspects so as to make it more democratic, representative, transparent and accountable. It also recognized that there was a wide support for increasing the number of non-permanent members in the Security Council. It decided that any reform proposal which neglect the adequate representation of the Ummah in any category of membership in an extended Security Council will not be acceptable to the Islamic world.”
“The meeting underlined the essential pre-requisite of following a uniform approach on all aspects of United Nations reform and achieving the expansion of the Security Council with the broadest possible consensus. In this context, the meeting stressed the initiation of constructive negotiation between all United Nations member states, to refrain from pushing divisive votes, without imposing any time limits. It called for and to building upon the points of convergence such as the need to enlarge the Council, to increase the representation of developing countries, and to improve the working methods and transparency of the Council’s work.
“The meeting, while taking note of the United Nations Secretary-General and the president of the General Assembly’s proposal on transformation of the United Nations Commission on Human Rights to a Human Rights Council, called for establishing an open-ended inter-governmental working group to discuss all related aspects of the proposal. It stressed, however, that nay proposal for reforming the human rights machinery of the United Nations should be based on the principles of sovereign equality of States and the need to ensure equitable geographic distribution.”
“The meeting, recognizing the central role of the Economic and Social Council (Ecosoc) in the promotion of socio-economic development, called for its transformation into an effective policy dialogue platform, to use its mechanism for monitoring the implementation of the agreed development goals, as an effective development forum and strengthening its role in the prevention of conflicts through development support. In this context, the meeting appreciated the proposal made by the president of the Ecosoc to further strengthen the coordinating role of the Ecosoc.”
