Interim PM Kakar to highlight Kashmir issue at UNGA: FO

Islamabad: Interim Prime Minister Anwaar-ul-Haq Kakar will address the annual UN General Assembly session on September 22.

Interim Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani will accompany the interim prime minister to New York, the Foreign Office's spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch announced at the weekly press briefing held here on Thursday.

The Jammu and Kashmir dispute, one of the long-standing unsolved items on the UN Agenda, is just one of the pressing concerns that the interim premier will discuss from Pakistan's standpoint.

The spokesperson stated that he would go into more detail about the important steps the interim administration is doing to support Pakistan's economic recovery and its attempts to attract both domestic and foreign investment.

According to Ms. Baloch, Kakar would also take part in additional high-level meetings and a summit on the SDGs that will be held under the auspices of the UNGA.

In light of COVID-19, geopolitical conflicts, and climate change, she claimed that they would provide useful forums for discussion of the effective global policy measures needed to solve the most urgent economic and development concerns facing the global South.

According to the spokesman, the interim PM will meet with counterparts from different nations as well as the leaders of international organizations, philanthropic organizations, and business executives in bilateral settings on the sidelines of the UNGA.

In response to a query, the spokesman stated that Jammu and Kashmir was an acknowledged internationally disputed region, and that the final decision about its future be made in accordance with the pertinent UNSC resolutions and the aspirations of the Kashmiri people.

She added that it was a well-known truth that, while the Jammu and Kashmir dispute was still being resolved, Pakistan controlled and claimed Gilgit Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir, which are depicted on an Indian map. In light of this, she claimed that any map designating the entire state of Jammu and Kashmir as being a part of India was both factually inaccurate and legally indefensible.

She expressed the hope that “our international partners would pay due attention to these facts.”

The official responded that Pakistan has been implementing the transit trade deal with Afghanistan in good faith when questioned about it. "We have made it easier for our neighbor who is a landlocked country to do business with the rest of the world, and we will keep doing that."

However, she mentioned that Pakistan had expressed some worries about the transit trade deal being abused, and that we would speak with the Afghan authorities about this to ensure that these behaviors did not persist.

According to the spokesperson, Pakistan is concerned about the security danger coming from Afghan territory. She continued by saying that it was crucial for the Afghan interim administration to make sure that their territory was not being exploited to endanger Pakistan.