ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) leader and former human rights minister Shireen Mazari has called out Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari’s silence on Modi regime’s gerrymandering of constituencies in Indian-occupied Kashmir.
In a tweet, Mazari alleged that the foreign minister’s ‘total silence’ is preferred by the United States after the regime change conspiracy. She said that Kashmir and the issue of Islamophobia have been placed on the backburner by the new government.
“After US regime change conspiracy total silence from Pak Foreign Minister, especially preferred by US one hears, on fascist Modi regime’s gerrymandering of constituencies in IIOJK. Kashmir put on backburner along with Islamophobia,” she tweeted.
FO rejects ‘Delimitation Commission’
Earlier India published a new list of redrawn political constituencies for the former state of Jammu and Kashmir, giving greater representation to the Muslim-majority region’s Hindu areas and paving the way for fresh elections.
Pakistan has categorically rejected the report of the so-called ‘delimitation commission’ for Indian occupied Kashmir (IoK).
On May 5, the Indian Charge d’Affairs was called to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and handed over a demarche conveying the Government of Pakistan’s categorical rejection of the report aimed at disenfranchising and disempowering the Muslim majority population of the region.
The Indian side was conveyed that this entire exercise was “farcical and had already been rejected by the cross-section of political parties in IoK”. Through this effort, India only wanted to lend ‘legitimacy’ to its illegal actions of August 5, 2019, the FO statement read.
It was emphasised that the ulterior motive of the Indian government was evident from the fact that, under the garb of so-called delimitation, the representation of Muslims in the re-designated constituencies had been reduced to their disadvantage.
“This shattered the rationale pushed by the Indian government that the ‘delimitation effort’ was aimed to ‘empower’ the local population. However, in reality, the new electoral boundaries would further disempower, marginalise and divide the people of the occupied territory. It would only pave the way for installing yet another puppet regime backed by the BJP-RSS combine” the statement read.
It was underscored to the Indian diplomat that the Jammu and Kashmir dispute was an internationally recognised dispute and a long-standing item on the agenda of the UN Security Council.
