Pakistan PM Shehbaz Sharif rakes up Kashmir challenge at UN, seeks peace with neighbours

Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has raked up the Kashmir challenge on the United Nations and stated battle was not an choice anymore. In his handle to the high-level UN General Assembly session, Sharif stated Pakistan was in search of peace with all its neighbours.

“Pakistan needs a stable external environment. We look for peace with all our neighbours, including India. Sustainable peace and stability in South Asia, however, remains contingent upon a just and lasting solution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute,” he stated.

Sharif claimed that India’s “illegal and unilateral” actions on August 5, 2019, to vary the particular standing of Jammu and Kashmir additional undermined the prospects of peace and infected regional tensions.

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“I think it’s high time that India understood this message loud and clear that both countries are armed to the teeth. War is not an option. It is not an option. Only peaceful dialogue can resolve these issues so that the world becomes more peaceful in time to come,” he stated.

India has repeatedly informed Pakistan that Jammu and Kashmir “was, is and shall forever” stay an integral a part of the nation. India has stated it wishes regular neighbourly relations with Pakistan in an setting freed from terror, hostility and violence.

The ties between India and Pakistan nosedived after New Delhi abrogated Article 370 of the Constitution.

India’s choice evoked robust reactions from Pakistan, which downgraded diplomatic ties and expelled the Indian envoy.

Shehbaz stated that New Delhi has ramped up its navy deployments in Jammu and Kashmir, thus making it the “most militarised zone in the world,” he said.

He said the Pakistani people have always stood by Kashmiris in complete solidarity and will continue to do so.

He said he will be forthcoming, to sit down and talk to “our Indian counterparts” to pave the way forward for the future so that “our generations don’t endure, in order that we spend our sources on mitigating miseries, on constructing constructions to face these floods and outburst of clouds.”

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“I assured the World Forum that we in Pakistan remain consistent in our commitment to peace in South Asia. India must take reasonable steps to create an enabling environment for constructive engagement,” he stated.

‘WAR NOT AN OPTION’

“We have had three wars from 1947 onwards and as a consequence, only misery, poverty and unemployment increased on both sides. It is now up to us to resolve our differences, our problems, and our issues through peaceful negotiations and discussions,” he stated.

“I think it’s high time that India understands this message that both countries are arms to the teeth. War is not an option, only peaceful dialogue can resolve issues so that the world becomes more peaceful in the time to come,” stated.

Shehbaz stated each India and Pakistan shouldn’t waste their sources in shopping for extra ammunition and attempting to advertise rigidity.

“It’s now up to us to resolve our differences, our problems or issues like peaceful neighbours through peaceful negotiations and discussions and save our scarce resources for promoting education and health and employment to millions of people,” he said.

On Afghanistan, he said at this point isolating the Afghan interim government could aggravate the suffering of the Afghan people who are already destitute.

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The Pakistani leader began his address by talking about the devastating floods in his country and said “in this ground zero of climate change”, 33 million folks, together with ladies and youngsters, are at excessive danger from well being hazards.

He stated 650,000 ladies have given start in makeshift tarpaulins, greater than 1500 folks have died, together with over 400 youngsters.

“The undeniable truth is that this calamity has not been triggered by anyhting we have doneWhat happened in Pakistan will not stay in Pakistan,” he said.

Shehbaz said Pakistan’s urgent priority was to ensure rapid economic growth and lift millions out of poverty and hunger, asserting that to enable any such policy momentum, Pakistan needs a stable external environment.

On terrorism, Shehbaz said Pakistan shares the key concern of the international community regarding the threat posed by major terrorist groups operating from Afghanistan, especially ISIL-K, TTP, as well as al Qaeda, ETIM, and IMU.

“They all need to be dealt with effectively and comprehensively with the support and cooperation of the interim Afghan authorities,” he said.

While stating that the UN Security Council and the General Assembly must be empowered to play their respective roles under the UN Charter, he said the Security Council must be expanded by adding 11 new non-permanent members to make it more representative, democratic, transparent, effective and accountable.

He said adding new permanent members will “paralyse” the Council’s decision-making, create new facilities of privilege in violation of precept of sovereign equality.

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