Days after India stripped the occupied valley of its special status, Pakistan on Wednesday announced that it was expelling the Indian high commissioner and suspending bilateral trade with its nuclear-armed neighbour.
“We will call back our ambassador from New Delhi and send back theirs,” Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi announced. He said the National Security Committee (NSC) has decided to downgrade Pakistan’s diplomatic relations with India and also suspend trade between the two countries.
Speaking at the joint sitting of the parliament, he said the NSC in its meeting Wednesday took five important decisions. Pakistan, he said, will review bilateral agreements with India and take a decision on them. As India did not agree to bilateral talks and discussion on the Kashmir issue at multilateral forums, damaged the spirit of Shimla agreement, and crossed the set limits, Pakistan has decided to approach the United Nations Security Council, he added.
Qureshi said August 14 – Pakistan’s Independence Day – will be observed to express solidarity with the Kashmiris and the slogan of ‘Kashmir baney ga Pakistan’ will be raised all over the country. While India’s independence day on August 15 will be observed as black day, he added.
Qureshi feared that Kashmiris will continue to face reprisals and atrocities by India. He said the NSC meeting was held to take a unanimous decision on the Kashmir issue and convey it to the world. He said Prime Minister Imran Khan has constituted a high-powered committee for consultation to take legal and diplomatic decisions to counter the Indian move of changing special status of Kashmir. He said the debate in the joint session of the parliament reflects the thinking of the parliamentarians on Kashmir.
The foreign minister said Pakistan condemns India’s decision to end the special status of Kashmir. “The Modi government has further complicated the issue of Kashmir for the Kashmiris and the international community,” he said, adding that he was in Saudi Arabia to perform Hajj but when he felt that the whole nation is disturbed due to prevailing situation in Held Kashmir, he decided to return to express solidarity with the Kashmiris.
Qureshi said he wants to send a message to the Kashmiris across the Line of Control that all the Pakistani people and the parliament have unanimity of views on the issue. India, he said, has always made an effort to suppress the Kashmir issue by making different excuses and by saying that it is a bilateral issue. “However, it has now made Kashmir an international issue as even people in India are saying that history will tell that Modi made a big mistake and took a non-democratic step of abrogating the article which will dent the country’s federal structure,” he added.
Qureshi said Kashmiris like Mehbooba Mufti and Umer Abdullah are now saying that their elders might have made a mistake by staying with India. He said the leaders of Hurriyat Conference like Ali Gilani, Umer Farooq and Yasin Malik have a clear stance but now other leaders are also against India’s decision. He called on India to remove its 900,000 troops from the Kashmir region and see how the Kashmiris react to its decision of revoking articles 370 and 35A of the constitution.
A legal battle has started in the Supreme Court of India, he said, adding that Muslims in India are looking towards the parliament of Pakistan.
He said Pakistan has conveyed its concerns to the United Nations Secretary General on Indian violations of the Line of Control (LoC) and human rights abuses in Held Kashmir. “I conveyed my concerns to the UN secretary general and asked him to intervene in the matter by writing a letter to him,” he added.
He said the ambassadors of P5 countries were summoned to the Foreign Office and Pakistan’s concerns were conveyed to them. He said after the Indian decision of August 5, the joint session of parliament was called on August 6 to send a message to the Kashmiris that Pakistan will continue to extend moral, diplomatic and political support to Kashmiris.
Meanwhile, the Foreign Office said that in pursuant to the decision of the National Security Committee, the government of India has been told to withdraw its high commissioner to Pakistan.
According to a press release, New Delhi has also been informed that Pakistan will not be sending its high commissioner-designate to India.
Earlier, the National Security Committee (NSC), in light of India’s recent actions in occupied Kashmir, resolved to downgrade Pakistan’s diplomatic relations with New Delhi and suspend all bilateral trade. The top security body’s meeting, presided over by Prime Minister Imran Khan, was held in the aftermath of India’s ‘unilateral and illegal’ actions through which it scrapped the special status for the occupied valley. The situation inside occupied Jammu and Kashmir and along the Line of Control was also discussed.
“PM directed that all diplomatic channels be activated to expose brutal Indian racist regime, design and human rights violations,” a statement issued after the meeting said. The prime minister also directed the armed forces to continue their vigilance.
The hours-long meeting was attended by Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, Defence Minister Pervez Khattak, Interior Minister Brig (r) Ijaz Shah, Minister for Education Shafqat Mehmood, Minister for Human Rights Dr Shireen Mazari, Minister for KA&GB Ali Amin Gandapur, Law Minister Dr Farogh Naseem, Adviser on Finance Abdul Hafeez Shaikh, Chairman Joint Chiefs of Staff Committee General Zubair Hayat, Chief of Army Staff General Qamar Javed Bajwa, Chief of Air Staff Air Chief Marshal Mujahid Anwar Khan, Vice Chief of Naval Staff, ISI Director General Lt Gen Faiz Hameed, ISPR director general, Special Assistant to Prime Minister on Information and Broadcasting Firdous Ashiq Awan and other senior officers.
