ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has said India has no right to object to the references made to Jammu and Kashmir in Pakistan-China joint statement issued in Beijing after talks between Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and his Chinese counterpart Li Qiang on June 8, and reiterated it is an established fact that Jammu and Kashmir is an internationally-recognised disputed territory.

“It is an established fact that Jammu and Kashmir is an internationally-recognised disputed territory. The dispute has been on the agenda of the UN Security Council for over seven decades,” the Foreign Office (FO) spokesperson said in a statement issued on Wednesday while responding to media queries regarding the remarks made by the Indian Ministry of External Affairs.

New Delhi rebuked for misleading international community about CPEC

The FO statement explained, “The relevant Security Council resolutions clearly stipulate that the final disposition of the State of Jammu and Kashmir will be made in accordance with the will of the people expressed through the democratic method of a free and impartial plebiscite conducted under the auspices of the United Nations. In that backdrop, the Indian claims over Jammu and Kashmir are totally unfounded and misplaced.

“India should not mislead the international community about the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), which is a flagship developmental endeavour, agreed upon by two sovereign nations. Instead of making baseless claims about CPEC, India should implement, at the earliest, the relevant UN Security Council resolutions on Jammu and Kashmir.”

Published in Dawn, June 20th, 2024