Durable peace in South Asia depends on peaceful resolution of Jammu & Kashmir dispute: PM

Islamabad: Prime Minister Imran Khan Wednesday has said that durable peace in South Asia is contingent upon peaceful resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in accordance with international legitimacy.

In his message on the occasion of Right to Self-Determination Day, the premier said, while observing this day, we reiterate our commitment to uphold the fundamental human rights of the people of Jammu and Kashmir and pay homage to Kashmiris' just struggle spanning more than seven decades.

He said that we are commemorating this day to remind the world community that it cannot abandon its moral and legal responsibilities towards the Kashmiri people.

The Prime Minister said that with the presence of 900,000 troops, India has turned the occupied territory into the largest open-air prison and the most militarized zone in the world.

The Prime Minister said that India's illegal and unilateral actions of 5 August, 2019, and subsequent measures, particularly pertaining to domicile rules and land ownership laws, were aimed at changing the demographic structure of IIOJK and converting the Kashmiris into a minority in their own land.

Foreign Minister Makhdoom Shah Mahmood Qureshi has said that the United Nations must live up to its promise of granting right to self-determination to Kashmiris.

In his message on the occasion of Self-Determination Day, he said that India must allow the UN fact finding mission to the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir to investigate the reports of grave human rights violations there.

He said that today marks the completion of 73 years since the United Nations committed that the Jammu and Kashmir Dispute would be decided through the democratic method of a free and impartial plebiscite.