Government to highlight Kashmir at UN, says Awan

Islamabad: Dr Firdous Ashiq Awan, Special Assistant to the Prime Minister on Information and Broadcasting, on Tuesday said Prime Minister Imran Khan would advocate for the Kashmiri cause at the United Nations General Assembly while activities would be held across Pakistan every Friday to highlight the issue.

Addressing a press conference about federal cabinet decisions, she said the prime minister took the cabinet into confidence about the steps taken by the government on the Kashmir issue.

The cabinet endorsed the prime minister’s decision to observe every Friday as Kashmir Solidarity Day and his efforts to turn the Kashmir issue into a movement.

She said a focal group had been established and during its meeting opposition members Mushahid Hussain Sayed of the Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz and Naveed Qamar of the Pakistan Peoples Party supported the government’s priorities on Kashmir.

Dr Awan said Imran had become a voice for the Kashmiris.

Protests on the streets of Pakistan would be a message to the world that it had to do more to resolve the Kashmir issue, she added.

The cabinet discussed different options to give momentum to the Kashmir freedom movement by arranging activities every Friday.

Students of schools and colleges, labourers, farmers and employees of government departments, hospitals and other institutions would show their solidarity to the Kashmiris’ cause, she added.

She said Imran had categorically stated that the people, government and the leadership of Pakistan would stand with the Kashmiri people till they achieved their rights.

Meanwhile, Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) Punjab General Secretary Chaudhry Manzoor Ahmad said on Tuesday the government should have sent a delegation to United Nations, human rights’ bodies, Organisation of Islamic Cooperation and the European Union to highlight human rights’ violations in Indian-administered Kashmir.

Addressing a press conference at Model Town, he said that the government should apprise the international community about Pakistan’s viewpoint on Kashmir.

The government should inform the people whether it wants to raise Kashmir issue at international level, he said and added that the government was pursuing the formula of former president Pervez Musharraf on Kashmir. He said the PTI government destroyed the country’s foreign policy and led the country towards isolation at the international stage.