Pak disappointed during UN official’s visit

Tribune News Service

New Delhi, August 10

Pakistan courted disappointment in its attempt to internationalise the Kashmir issue during the visit of UN General Assembly’s President Volkan Bozkir for the forthcoming session.

In measured remarks, Bozkir said in Islamabad that UN’s position is based on its charter. “There is also the 1972 Simla agreement between India and Pakistan which states that final status of Jammu and Kashmir should be settled by peaceful means under UN charter,” he said, indicating bilateralism as the basis for dispute settlement.

Elected President of the 75th General Assembly of the UN, the Turkish diplomat was to visit Pakistan last month but called off his visit due to flight related difficulties. Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi had then said he hoped to discuss several issues, including Kashmir.

During meetings with Bozkir, Pakistan PM Imran Khan and Qureshi spoke of alleged human rights violations in Jammu and Kashmir during separate meetings in Islamabad on Monday. Khan pressed the UN to play its “rightful role in addressing the grave situation and ensure the right to self-determination of the Kashmiri people promised by earlier UNSC resolutions”.