Foreign Office spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri says Prime Minister Imran Khan has presented Pakistan’s perspective on international and regional issues with explicitness, courage, wisdom and sagacity at the UN General Assembly (UNGA) session.
In a statement about the Prime Minister’s address at the UNGA’s 75th session, the spokesperson said that the prime minister elaborated on the government’s vision of building a new Pakistan on the pattern of the state of Medina.
Chaudhri said that Prime Minister Khan presented the Kashmir issue convincingly and comprehensively, pointing out alleged Indian “aggression and state terrorism”, and stressing for fulfilment of the promises of Kahsmiris’ rights and plebiscite.
He said that Khan spoke on the Kashmir issue, the Afghan peace process, Islamophobia, the coronavirus pandemic, the implications of the illegal transfer of money, and the ways to address them.
Chaudhri said that the prime minister also presented Pakistan’s perspective on issues like climate change, suggested reforms in the UN Security Council, and international peace and stability.
He said that Prime Minister Khan urged the international community to take steps for resolution of the long-standing Kashmir dispute under the UN Security Council resolutions.
When addressing the issue of rising Islamophobia, Khan condemned the fresh publication of cartoons of the Prophet Muhammad (pbuh) by a French satirical weekly.
The prime minister said that rising global nationalism has “accentuated Islamophobia”, adding that Muslims “continue to be targeted with impunity in many countries”.
“Incidents in Europe, including the re-publication of blasphemous sketches by Charlie Hebdo, are recent examples,” Khan said. “We stress that wilful provocations and incitement to hate and violence must be universally outlawed.
“This assembly should declare an international day to combat Islamophobia and build a coalition to fight the scourge.”
Charlie Hebdo, known for its irreverent humour and absolutist belief in free speech, has repeatedly stirred anger in the Islamic world by publishing cartoons of the Prophet.
Twelve people were killed in an attack by gunmen on Charlie Hebdo’s office in Paris on January 7, 2015.
In a defiant gesture timed with the trial this month of accomplices to the massacre, Charlie Hebdo reprinted some of the caricatures.
On Friday, a man with a cleaver wounded two people outside the newspaper’s former offices in Paris before being arrested by police (see report on page 8).
Pakistan’s representative at the UNGA session has meanwhile stated the position that Jammu and Kashmir are not a part of India, that it never was, and that it never will be.
Exercising Pakistan’s right of reply to the statement by the representative of India at the session, Zulqarnain Chheena said that India has no claim on Jammu and Kashmir than that of a “military occupier”.
He added that the state of Jammu and Kashmir is a disputed territory.
Chheena said that as decreed by the UN Security Council, the final disposition of the state 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.