Day: September 26, 2021

Islamabad, September 26, 2021 (PPI-OT):Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi arrived in New York on September 20th to attend the 76th session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA). The Foreign Minister attended the opening session of the 76th session of the UNGA on September 21, 2021. FM Qureshi addressed the Council on Foreign Relations on 21 September 2021. He spoke about Pakistan-US relations as well as the situation in Afghanistan.

On 21 September, the Foreign Minister attended the D8 Council of Ministers Forum. On the same day the FM had an extensive media interaction and addressed the Pakistani-American community in New York. On 22 September 2021, FM Qureshi met High Representative of the European Union for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy/Vice President of the European Commission, Josep Borrell.

The two leaders had an in-depth discussion on Pakistan-EU relations, including the strategic partnership. Afghanistan related cooperation and way forward were also discussed. On 22 September 2021, FM Qureshi also addressed a virtual forum on ‘How changing water availability from ice and snow will impact our societies’.

On 23 September 2021, the Foreign Minister had a detailed meeting with US Secretary of State Antony J. Blinken. A wide ranging discussion was held covering bilateral relations and the situation in Afghanistan. The US side expressed appreciation for Pakistan’s evacuation related assistance. The same day, the Foreign Minister chaired a meeting of the OIC Contact Group on Kashmir. It was the only contact group meeting held on the side-lines of the 76th UNGA.

It brought together Foreign Ministers of Contact Group member states who expressed concern at the human rights violations in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK). On September 23, 2021 the Foreign Minister attended and spoke at the “Uniting for Consensus” Ministerial Meeting.

The same day, FM Qureshi also had a dinner interaction with leading Pakistani-American investors and entrepreneurs. Other engagements of the Foreign minister on the side-lines of the 76th session of the UN General Assembly included meetings with:

-US Special Representative for Afghanistan, Ambassador Zalmay Khalilzad (September 21, 2021);

-President International Committee of the Red Cross (ICRC), Peter Maurer (September 22, 2021);

-UN High Commissioner for Refugees, Filippo Grandi (September 22, 2021);

-UN Secretary General, Antonio Guterres (September 24, 2021); and

-President General Assembly, Abdulla Shahid (September 25, 2021).

During these interactions, the Foreign minister, inter Alia, highlighted Pakistan’s efforts to avert a humanitarian tragedy in Afghanistan. He called upon his interlocutors to provide while hearted assistance to Afghanistan. FM Qureshi had bilateral meetings with his counterparts from various countries including:

1. Austria (September 22, 2021)

2. Belgium (September 24, 2021)

3. Egypt (September 21, 2021)

4. Finland (September 23, 2021)

5. Indonesia (September 24, 2021)

6. Ireland (September 21, 2021)

7. Japan (September 23, 2021)

8. Norway (September 21, 2021)

9. Portugal (September 21, 2021)

10. Qatar (September 22, 2021)

11. Romania (September 24, 2021)

12. Saudi Arabia (September 23, 2021)

13. Slovenia (September 22, 2021)

14. Sweden (September 24, 2021)

15. Turkey (September 23, 2021)

On September 24, 2021, the Foreign Minister spoke to Pakistani media representatives in New York and briefed them on Pakistan’s position on important issues, including the emerging situation in Afghanistan.

The Foreign Minister also spoke with other eminent media entities including the New York Times (September 24, 2021), TRT World (September 20, 2021), Al Jazeera (September 24, 2021), UN Correspondents (September 21, 2021) and the Associated Press (September 22, 2021).

He also had a virtual discussion with the Foreign Press Association (International Press) (September 21, 2021). The highlight of the Foreign Minister visit was Prime Minister Imran Khan’s virtual address to the high level segment of the 76th UNGA on 24 September 2021. During his speech, the Prime Minister covered important issues including:

1. COVID-19;

2. Climate Change;

3. Islamophobia;

4. Illicit financial flows;

5. Indian atrocities in IIOJK; and

6. Situation in Afghanistan.

During his stay in New York, the Foreign Minister also held an interaction with Senator James Risch, Ranking Member of the Senate Foreign Relations Committee (Virtual) on 23 September 2021. The Foreign Minister’s visit was highly successful, extensively covered and drew praise from different quarters.

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Islamabad, September 26, 2021 (PPI-OT):The 11th Annual Public Health Conference took place in Islamabad on the 23rd and 24th of September. Held in Health Services Academy, the national hub of public health education and policy advice, its theme this year was ‘Contemporary medicines, Health technologies and Vaccines for emerging public health risks’.

The conference gathered health experts from national public and private and international organizations that showcased their work, providing evidence-based policy recommendations. In it, Child Advocacy International (CAI), a non-profit based in the capital, in collaboration with two District Health teams and the Swiss Tropical and Public Health Institute and the Alliance for Health Policy and Systems Research, presented its embedded research on Systems Thinking.

This work is a part of an international initiative being piloted in three countries in the world. Its objective is to introduce the use of System Thinking tools to District Health Teams to enhance their decision making and troubleshooting capacities within their often limited decision space.

In Islamabad, the team worked with the district health management to map the COVID-19 contact tracing system and extracted important lessons from this success story of rapid health system development. In Rajanpur district, CAI explored the multiple contextual factors behind District Health Information System’s (DHIS) data quality and utilization with their district health team.

These two were presented by CAI’s researchers to a panel of experts attending the conference. They sparked insightful discussions on the scope of use of System tools at the district level and how they may be used in other decision-making processes and, in other districts.

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Islamabad, September 26, 2021 (PPI-OT):Chairman of the Parliamentary Committee on Kashmir Shehryar Afridi has presented a dossier to the Amnesty International (AI) on human rights violations in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) and urged the Amnesty International to raise its voice and ask the United Nations and other humanitarian organisations to save the suffering Kashmiris from Indian genocide.

Afridi who met Lawrence Moss, Senior Advocate at Amnesty International (AI) at the United Nations on the margins of the 76th session of the UN General Assembly (UNGA) in New York and briefed him on the worsening human rights violations in the Illegally Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).

During the 90-minute meeting, Afridi detailed how the occupational regime of Indian in Jammu and Kashmir was involved in war crimes and crimes against humanity. He also briefed Mr Moss on the muzzling of civil society voices in India, including its refusal to allow Amnesty International and other independent observers to operate in the country particularly in IIOJK which he said was a matter of deep concern.

“I underlined that India has imposed an ‘iron curtain’ on IIOJK since 05 Aug 2019 and was relentlessly pursuing its nefarious design to introduce demographic changes in the occupied territory,” he said. He said he had invited Amnesty International to have a more in depth and detailed interaction with members of the Special Parliamentary Committee on Kashmir in future.

“As the chairman of the Parliamentary Special Committee on Kashmir, I have come to take part in the ongoing General Assembly session for a very special purpose. My mission here is to sensitize the international community, as well as the civil society, on the grave and systematic human rights violations taking place in IIOJK,” Afridi said.

“Since 05 August 2019, there is a wall of secrecy, a military siege and communication blockade imposed on IIOJK. Behind this iron curtain, crimes against humanity are being committed in IIOJK, not just human rights violations. These include mass killings, blindings, rape, illegal detention of thousands of political activists, torture and degrading treatment,” he said.

“Our outreach to the European Parliament, UK House of Commons, even US Congress and ASEAN parliaments has been successful,” said Mr Afridi. Shehryar Afridi said that due to selectivity and double standards, human rights have been reduced to instruments of strategic and foreign policy. “Recently, a debate on Kashmir was held in UK House of Commons in which speaker after speaker emphasised to put an end to the oppression, genocide and war crimes in Kashmir. But would 10 Downing Street listen to them,” argued Mr Afridi.

“If India has nothing to hide why is not giving access to HRW, Amnesty International and Physicians for Human Rights in the occupied so that they could make an independent assessment of the situation there. The Office of High Commissioner and Human Rights Council have been denied entry,” he said.

Afridi said that to further its plans, over 4.2 million fake domicile certificates have been issued already under the so-called “Jammu and Kashmir Grant of Domicile Certificate (Procedure) Rules, 2020” with an objective to change the demography of the occupied territory.

“The most recent example of Indian barbarity was the treatment of mortal remains of the great Kashmiri leader Syed Ali Shah Geelani. His body was forcibly snatched by the Indian army and his family was denied the right of a proper funeral and burial. The Government of India was so afraid of Syed Geelani and what he stood for that they resorted to this inhumane act even after his passing away,” he concluded.

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New York, September 26, 2021 (PPI-OT):Azad Jammu and Kashmir President Barrister Sultan Mehmood Chaudhry has said that the Kashmir dispute could only be resolved through the free exercise by the Kashmiri people of their UN-pledged right of self-determination, and not by military means as India was attempting to do.

“There is no military solution,” he told a large number of Kashmiris, Pakistanis and Sikhs who staged a big anti-India demonstration in front of the United Nations (UN) building in New York on Saturday, as Prime Minister Narendra Modi addressed the UN General Assembly.

Holding banners and placards in their hands inscribed with pro-freedom and anti-India slogans, the participants raised vociferous slogans against Modi and expressed complete solidarity with the struggling people of Jammu and Kashmir. The Azad Kashmir president was the chief guest at the rally in which Dr Ghulam Nabi Fai, secretary-general of the Washington-based World Kashmir Awareness Forum, Sardar Sawar Khan, a former member of Azad Kashmir Council, were among those who spoke.

A prominent Sikh leader, Dr Amarjit Singh, president of the Khalistan Affair Center, also spoke in support of the Kashmir cause. President Sultan Chaudhry said he had come to New York to apprise the international community about the continued atrocities and gross human right violations committed by over 900,000 Indian troops deployed in occupied Jammu.

He said the international attention was now focused on Kashmir and he called for unity among people as they push for freedom from the Indian yoke. Dr Fai said the president of the General Assembly, Abdulla Shahid, must know that the Prime Minister Modi, who spoke on Saturday, was declared as ‘butcher of Gujarat’. Within the past two years, he said, Modi had made Kashmir a hell for its people.

The people of Kashmir, he said, always had been hostile to the presence of India’s troops on their soil and had resisted to such oppression, and over hundred thousand Kashmiris had died within the past 30 years alone. “The world powers and the saner elements in both India and Pakistan need to realize that the participation of Kashmiri leadership in the dialogue process with India and Pakistan is the sine qua non that will help to achieve the lasting peace and tranquillity in the region of South Asia,” Dr Fai added.

Sardar Sawar Khan called on the UN to decisively move towards implementing its resolutions that pledged the right of self-determination to Kashmiris, as did Khalid Awan, president of People’s Party, USA. Dr Amarjit Singh said the Modi led regime was based on RSS ideology, and that Sikhs, Muslims, Christians and Dalits were being subjected to worst kind of persecution.

He called on the UN to intervene and implement UN Security Council Resolutions on Jammu and Kashmir. The Sikh Nation was also struggling to free itself from Indian yoke, and establish an independent Sovereign Nation of Khalistan. After nearly four hours, the demonstrators dispersed.

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Srinagar, September 26, 2021 (PPI-OT):In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, India has started evicted Kashmiri Muslims from their ancestral property by claiming that these properties had been once used by the Kashmiri Pandits. Deputy Commissioner Islamabad, Dr Piyush Singla has admitted that 22 evictions have been carried out even as nine ‘Lagan’ notices have been issued while 10 demarcations have also been completed, so far, in Islamabad district alone.

The DC said the district administration has taken various steps to carry out the drive even on complaints filed by the Pandits online or offline. He said the officers of revenue and other departments concerned have been given clear directions to act with “zeal and commitment” to address the grievances concerning the land and property of the ‘migrants’.

“Redressal of the complaints as per law and in a time bound manner is being emphasised upon the most”, he added. The DC said that the relevant provisions of law are being followed in letter and spirit and the administration is ensuring the genuine rights of migrants in different categories are duly protected. Srinagar-based experts believe that Modi regime is using Kashmiri Pandits as an excuse to snatch the land of Kashmiri Muslims in a bid to demographically change the Muslim status of Jammu and Kashmir.

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Islamabad, September 26, 2021 (PPI-OT):Advisor to Prime Minister on National Security, Dr Moeed Yusuf says the world is not addressing the issue of India’s involvement in fomenting terrorism from Afghanistan. In his reaction to the speech delivered by the Indian Prime Minister at the United Nations General Assembly, he said India is perpetuating state terrorism in Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

He said the dossier issued by the government of Pakistan contains details on a vast range of incidents and atrocities including extra judicial killings, arbitrary arrests, cases of torture, pellet gun injuries and rapes and over 100,000 children being orphaned by the Indian forces in Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

Modi did not bother to respond to Pakistan’s dossier that highlighted another atrocity, which was the suspected use of chemical weapons by India against the Kashmiris. The document also provides details of the 8,652 unmarked mass graves that have been identified in 89 villages of 6 districts in IIOJ and K. According to the evidence presented in the dossier, India is operating training camps in Gulmarg, Raipur, Jodhpur, Chakrata, Anupgarh and Bikaner.

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Srinagar, September 26, 2021 (PPI-OT):In Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir, Hurriyat leaders and organizations have hailed the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan, for raising the Kashmir dispute and the Indian state terrorism in the territory in his address to the UN General Assembly.

Veteran Hurriyat leader, Ghulam Muhammad Khan Sopori addressing a meeting in Pulwama especially thanked the Prime Minister of Pakistan, Imran Khan for highlighting the Kashmir dispute in his address to the UN General Assembly.

He said that the manner in which Imran Khan spoke on the Kashmir dispute to the UN General Assembly was commendable. He added that Imran Khan represented the Kashmiris in a very bold and effective manner and informed the world about the current chaotic situation in the occupied territory. The Tehreek-e-Muzahamat Chairman, Bilal Ahmed Siddiqui in a statement issued in Srinagar thanked Imran Khan for his unambiguous advocacy of people of Kashmir in the United Nations.

He said, as a stakeholder in the Kashmir dispute, Pakistan has every right to raise the issue in each and every forum of the world. The way Imran Khan highlighted the grim situation of Kashmir at the hands of New Delhi and condemned the colonial and fascist repressive and oppressive brutalities of India in Kashmir deserve a huge appreciation.

“On behalf of people of I take this opportunity to thank Pakistan, Prime Minister for representing the true sentiments, sufferings and sacrifices of people here in Kashmir. We are sure that Pakistan will actively continue its moral, political and diplomatic support to the just cause of people of Kashmir.

The Jammu and Kashmir Employees Movement Vice Chairman, Imtiaz Wani in a statement issued in Islamabad thanked Prime Minister of Pakistan Imran Khan and said that sacrifices and efforts of Pakistan regarding the Kashmiris’ right to self-determination are unforgettable.

He said, as an important party to the Kashmir dispute, Pakistan from day one has extended its moral, political and diplomatic support to get it resolved keeping in view the aspirations of the people of Kashmir and in accordance with the United Nations relevant resolutions. He also welcomed Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan for highlighting the Kashmir dispute at the annual session of the UN General Assembly.

The Jammu and Kashmir Mass Moment Vice Chairman, Abdul Majeed Mir in his statement in Islamabad said that the Prime Minister’s address to the UN General Assembly, Foreign Minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi’s diplomacy and Pakistan delegate, Saima Saleem expressed the aspirations of the Kashmiri people.

He said that it was the result of sincere efforts of Pakistan that the legitimate movement of Kashmiris against the illegal occupation of India was gaining the moral, political and diplomatic support of the international community and the world is condemning India for its brutalities in the occupied territory.

Hurriyat AJK leader Zahid Safi in a statement in Islamabad also hailed Turkish President, Recep Tayyip Erdogan for raising his voice for the oppressed Muslims in the world including the people of Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

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