Pakistan rejects India’s ‘unwarranted’ comments on Pak-China joint statement

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Thursday categorically rejected the “unwarranted and preposterous” comments from India on the joint statement issued by Islamabad and Beijing following Prime Minister Imran Khan’s recent visit to China.

The joint statement was issued as PM Imran concluded his visit after meeting President Xi Jinping on February 6. According to the statement, PM Imran highlighted during his meeting with President Xi that the persecution of minorities in Indian-occupied Kashmir was a threat to regional peace and stability.

The statement said the two leaders also discussed the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), with PM Imran welcoming Chinese investments in the project’s second phase that centres on industrialisation and improving people’s livelihoods.

Reacting to the joint statement, Indian Ministry of External Affairs rejected references to Jammu and Kashmir and an economic corridor passing through Kashmir in Pakistan and China’s joint statement.

It called on China and Pakistan to “not interfere in India’s internal affairs” or to alter the status quo in areas that they claim Pakistan “illegally” occupied. Moreover, India claimed that the region as well as the Union Territory of Ladakh “have been, are and will always remain integral and inalienable parts of India”.

The Foreign Office (FO) in Islamabad issued a statement today, rejecting Bagchi’s remarks, terming New Delhi’s claim over occupied Kashmir “baseless” and highlighting that there was “irrefutable evidence” of India’s designs to sabotage the CPEC.

“New Delhi’s baseless claims over Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) can neither change the facts of history nor the legal status of the Jammu & Kashmir dispute. IIOJK never was and never will be India’s ‘integral part,'” the FO said.

It added that the “irrefutable fact remains that India is an occupation force in IIOJK in clear violation of the relevant United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions, and its illegal and unilateral actions of 5 August 2019, seeking to change the internationally recognised disputed status of IIOJK and to alter its demographic structure, have been rejected by the Kashmiris, by Pakistan, and by the international community.”

The FO expressed Pakistan’s resolve to continue to extend all possible support to the people of occupied Kashmiri in their just struggle against India’s illegal occupation.

“Rather than resorting to false and misleading assertions without success, India must vacate its illegal occupation of the disputed territory, immediately reverse its illegal and unilateral actions of 5 August 2019 and let Kashmiris exercise their inalienable right to self-determination through a free and impartial plebiscite under the auspices of the United Nations as enshrined in the relevant UNSC resolutions,” it said.

Moreover, the FO stated that Pakistan “strongly rejects India’s persistent propaganda against the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC)”.

“Pakistan has shared irrefutable evidence of India’s sinister campaign to sabotage the CPEC through its dossiers released in 2020 and 2021,” the FO statement read.