Pakistan engaging with Afghanistan on terror threats: FO

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has reaffirmed its commitment to engage with Afghanistan on all aspects of cooperation and concern including issues relating to terror threats.

Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch on Thursday urged the Afghan authorities to fulfill their promises that their soil will not be used for terrorism against Pakistan.

She said Afghan authorities have “accepted this responsibility on various occasions” and must now ensure their land is not used against Pakistan.

Further in her weekly briefing, she touched on various issues including the situation in Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

She said that “Pakistan will continue to support its Kashmiri brothers and sisters in their just struggle against Indian oppression till the realization of their inalienable right to self-determination as enshrined in the UN Security Council Resolutions”.

In light of the contested abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019, which will be once more being debated in India’s top court, Baloch said “India’s unabated repression over the last seven decades has failed to break the will of Kashmiri people for the right to self-determination”.

Responding to a question on the Indus Water Treaty, another legal battle involving Pakistan and India, she stated that Pakistan was committed to the treaty’s full implementation and hoped India would do the same.

The Spokesperson also said the UN Human Rights Council recently adopted a “historic resolution” presented by Pakistan on the behalf of the OIC which condemned religious hatred, including the recent acts of desecration of Holy Quran.

She said Pakistan shared the disappointment of the OIC countries that despite its balanced and apolitical nature, “this important resolution was put to vote on fallacious grounds, derailing the council’s consensus”.

“Pakistan believes that the Human Rights Council must speak with one voice on the issue of Islamophobia which affects human rights, fundamental freedoms, dignity and identity of over two billion Muslims”, she said.