ISLAMABAD: Pakistan expressed its strong indignation over India’s decision to hold G-20 Tourism Working Group meeting in ‘Held Srinagar’, a city in illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir on May 22-24, 2023. \ “Scheduling of two other meetings of consultative forum on youth affairs (Y-20) in Leh and Srinagar in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) is equally disconcerting,” Foreign Office spokesperson Mumtaz Zahra Baloch said in statement.

She said India’s irresponsible move was latest in series of self-serving measures to perpetuate its illegal occupation of Jammu and Kashmir in sheer disregard of UN Security Council resolutions and in violation of principles of UN Charter and international law. “Pakistan vehemently condemns these moves,” reads statement.

“Such events cannot hide reality of Jammu and Kashmir being an internationally recognised dispute that has remained on agenda of United Nations Security Council for over seven decades. Nor could such activities divert international community’s attention from India’s brutal suppression of people of IIOJK including illegal attempts to change demographic composition of occupied territory,” Baloch said. With its decision to host G-20 events in IIOJK, the FO spokesperson said India was again exploiting its membership of an important international grouping for advancing its self-serving agenda. “For country that has grandiose vision about itself and its place in world, India has once more demonstrated that it is unable to act as responsible member of international community,” she concluded.

Published in The Daily National Courier, April, 12 2023

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