ISLAMABAD: Leader of the Opposition in the National Assembly and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz president Shehbaz Sharif has called upon major world powers, particularly P5 countries, to ensure that Israel is made to comply with the UN Security Council resolutions.

“Failure to do so calls into question their respect for and commitment to the Charter of the United Nations,” he said, underlining that the only fair, just and credible solution to the problem was full and immediate implementation of the Security Council resolutions 242 and 336.

The opposition leader expressed these views during his meeting with Pales­tinian Ambassador Ahmed Rafei on Tuesday. Accomp­anied by former prime minister Shahid Khaqan Abbasi and other leaders of his party, including Ahsan Iqbal and Maryam Aurangzeb, Shehbaz Sharif expressed solidarity with the ambassador on behalf of the nation, PML-N and party supreme leader Nawaz Sharif.

He said the Israeli occupation forces had once again unleashed a reign of terror to evict Palestinians from their ancestral homes. Israel’s sacrilegious military action taking place in and around Al Aqsa mosque had deeply hurt the sentiments of Muslims across the world.

He condemned the Zionist entity for the violence and terror unleashed in the vicinity of the holy site that mirrors its policy of tyranny and oppression pursued in the territories that it had seized and kept in illegal occupation for over 50 years. He recalled that Israel stood condemned by the UN and its Security Council and international human rights organisations.

He hailed the courage and bravery of the people of Palestine who have refused to be cowed down by Israel’s state-sponsored brutality and genocidal policies.

In this context, the PML-N president also expressed solidarity with the suffering people of Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir who too have been living in a state of servitude for decades but confronting a brutal occupation power that has let loose a reign of terror.

The occupation forces have converted the territory into a vast prison, where there is no consideration for age and gender, he observed, explaining that Indian human rights organisations, too, had documented the state-sponsored terror tactics that resulted in the death of thousands of Kashmiris and devastation of their homeland.

Published in Dawn, May 12th, 2021