Unite on Kashmir Issue Or will move ahead with or without you: Shah Mehmood Qureshi warns OIC

Minister of Foreign Affairs of Pakistan, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, on Wednesday, warned the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) to stop delaying plans on the convening of a meeting of its Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) on Jammu and Kashmir.

The Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) is an international organization founded in 1969, consisting of 57 member states.

The organisation states that it is “the collective voice of the Muslim world” and works to “safeguard and protect the interests of the Muslim world in the spirit of promoting international peace and harmony”.

According to a report by a Pakistan based news portal, Qureshi said that if OIC cannot stand by Pakistan on JK, the country will move on without OIC.

Besides this, Qurashi has also demanded the Muslim world to come together and listen to the people of JK reeling under the long-pending dispute.

Earlier in a week, the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan assured his country’s support for Pakistan’s stance on the Kashmir issue in a conversation with President of Pakistan Arif Alvi.

“President Dr Arif Alvi and President Erdogan exchanged Eidul Azha greetings in a telephonic conversation. Important matters including Kashmir and Covid-19 were discussed,” a tweet by Alvi’s office said.

“I am once again respectfully telling OIC that a meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers is our expectation. If you cannot convene it, then I’ll be compelled to ask Prime Minister Imran Khan to call a meeting of the Islamic countries that are ready to stand with us on the issue of Kashmir and support the oppressed Kashmiris,” the report quoted Qurashi as having said.

Qureshi, according to the report, said that if OIC cannot stand by Pakistan, Pakistan would be ready to go for a session outside OIC, it cannot wait any further.

Ever since the government of India abrogated the Article 370 of Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcated the erstwhile state into two union territories, Pakistan has been pushing for the foreign ministers’ meeting of the 57-member bloc of Muslim countries, which is the second-largest intergovernmental body after the United Nations.

According to a recently released report by the Jammu and Kashmir Coalition of Civil Society (JKCCS), Kashmir has seen at least 229 killings during more than 100 military operations since January 2020.

The GVS report said that as India is allowing outsiders to hold properties and jobs with 25000 domicile certificates in JK, efforts are being made to change the demography of the erstwhile state.

According to the report, the reason behind the failure to call the foreign ministers’ meeting has been Saudi Arabia’s reluctance to accept Pakistan’s request for one specifically on Kashmir.

“Riyadh’s support is crucial for any move at the OIC, which is dominated by Saudi Arabia and other Arab countries,” the report suggests.

As OIC cannot stand by Pakistan, Qureshi said that Pakistan skipped Kuala Lumpur Summit last December on Saudi request and now Pakistani Muslims are demanding of Riyadh to “show leadership on the issue”.

“We have our own sensitivities. You have to realize this. Gulf countries should understand this,” the foreign minister was quoted by the report as having said, adding that he could no more indulge in diplomatic niceties.

Quoting articles written for a Delhi based Newspaper The Indian Express by Professor Christophe Jaffrelot, a senior research fellow at CERI-Sciences Po/CNRS, Paris, professor of Indian Politics and Sociology at King’s India Institute, London, and Haider Abbas Rizvi, an Uttar Pradesh-based Information Commissioner, the report said that Muslim countries with which India had increasingly good relations have become less friendly but, at the same time, Pakistan was able to seek diplomatic support in order to present its case for Jammu and Kashmir.

The report further said that Muslim countries including Bangladesh, Malaysia, Turkey, Iran, Afghanistan and Indonesia, argues Professor Jaffrelot, have expressed severe reservations over what is going on in India.

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