Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif Saturday (today) nominated 22 parliamentarians as special envoys to highlight Indian brutalities and human rights abuses in Indian Occupied Kashmir (IOK) in key parts of the world.
“I have decided to send these parliamentarians for fighting the Kashmir cause in different parts of the world. These special envoys have the strength of the people of Pakistan, prayers from the Kashmiri people across the Line of Control, the mandate of the parliament and support from the government” the prime minister said.
“I am standing behind these special envoys to ensure their toil for highlighting the Kashmir cause resonates across the world so that I can shake the collective conscience of the international community during my address at the UN this September,” he said.
He said Pakistan would remind the United Nations of its long-held promise of self-determination to the Kashmiri people and would make it clear to India that it was them that had approached the United Nations several decades back on Kashmir dispute but not fulfilling its promise.
“Generation after generation of Kashmiris have seen only broken pledges and ruthless oppression,” the prime minister said.
He emphasised that this anniversary of the UN ought to be a catalyst, spurring the body into action.
“The Kashmir dispute is the most persistent failure of the United Nations; the United Nations must establish its relevance. We cannot relent from the Kashmir cause by any stretch of the imagination,” the prime minister reiterated.
Among the parliamentarians who have been nominated as special envoys to highlight Indian brutalities and lobby for the Kashmir cause in various countries included Ijazul Haq and Malik Uzair for Brussels, Khusro Bakhtiar and Alamdad Laleka for Beijing, Raza Hayat Hiraj, Junaid Anwar Chaudhry and Nawab Ali Wassan for the Russian Federation.
The prime minister nominated Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Major (retd) Tahir Iqbal and Muhammad Afzal Khokhar for Saudi Arabia, Mohsin Shahnawaz Ranjha and Malik Pervaiz for Turkey, Lt General (retd) Abdul Qayyum and Qaiser Sheikh for the United Kingdom.