ISLAMABAD: Pakistan would continue supporting the Palestinian people in their struggle for right to self-determination and attaining the goal of establishment of an independent state, said Foreign Office Spokesman Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri on Thursday.

Speaking at a webinar hosted by the Islamabad Policy Institute (IPI) on ‘Dynamics of Muslim World & Future of Palestine: Time to Fight Back’, the spokesman said: “We will continue to extend our full support to the Palestinian people in their struggle for the realisation of their inalienable rights and for the establishment of an independent state.”

Pakistan has always supported the just cause of Palestine.

Recalling Pakistan’s unflinching support for the Palestinian cause, Mr Chaudhri said: “Pakistan has sponsored, co-sponsored or supported every resolution on Palestine at all international fora, including the United Nations and the OIC.” Pakistan was amongst the first countries to recognise the Palestinian statehood in 1988 and later in 2012 co-sponsored the UN General Assembly Resolution that upgraded its status to that of a non-member observer.

Questions were raised last year about possible change in Pakistan’s policy following speculations that Islamabad was mulling over a proposal for recognition of Israel after some of its Arab allies put aside decades of animosity with the Zionist state and recognised it. However, Prime Minister Imran Khan on that occasion categorically rejected the rumours and said his country would not recognise Israel until there was a Palestinian state acceptable to the Palestinians.

“We believe that for just and lasting peace, it is imperative to have a two-state solution in accordance with the relevant United Nations and OIC resolutions with the pre-1967 borders, and Al-Quds Al-Sharif as the capital of a viable, independent and contiguous Palestinian State,” Mr Chaudhri stated while recapping Pakistan’s Palestine Policy at the webinar.

Published in Dawn, May 7th, 2021