Pakistan wants to resolve ‘all issues, including Kashmir’ with India, says PM Shehbaz Sharif

While addressing a special session of the Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) legislative assembly in Muzaffarabad on “Kashmir Solidarity Day”, Sharif said that India should fulfil the promises made to the United Nations and start a dialogue.

The ‘Kashmir Solidarity Day’ is an annual Pakistani event, organised to show support for the Kashmiris.

“We want all issues, including Kashmir, to be resolved through talks,” Sharif said.

The Pakistani PM further said, “India should come out of the thinking of August 5, 2019, and fulfil promises made to the UN and launch a dialogue.” His remark was made in reference to the abrogation of Article 370 of the Constitution, that took away the special status of Jammu and Kashmir and bifurcate the state into two Union Territories.

‘Peace is the way to progress’

Just as it is written in the Lahore Declaration of 1999, agreed upon by the then Indian prime minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee during his Pakistan visit, Pakistan’s Sharif said that the only way forward for Islamabad and New Delhi was a ‘dialogue’.

Notably, India has also repeatedly asserted that it wishes to have normal neighbourly relations with Pakistan in an environment free of terror, hostility and violence.

New Delhi has told Pakistan that the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh “was, is and shall forever” remain a crucial part of the nation.

The ties between India and Pakistan had taken a further hit after the abrogation of Article 370.

Additionally, the Pakistani prime minister accused India of cumulating weapons and said that collecting arms would not bring peace or change to the fate of people of Kashmir. He urged New Delhi to be wise, saying that peace was the path to progress.

“Pakistan will continue to offer its unwavering moral, diplomatic and political support to the Kashmiri people till the realization of their right to self-determination,” he said, adding that, “The only solution to the Kashmir issue is the right of self-determination under the UNSC resolution.”

Pakistan president Asif Ali Zardari and Prime Minister Sharif asked the international community to pressurise India to allow the Kashmiris “to freely determine their future for lasting people in the region”.

PoK “prime minister” Anwarul Haq noted that Pakistan was the final destination for Kashmiris, saying that peace would not be possible until the resolution of Kashmir issue.

At the event, chairman joint chiefs of staff committee, the service chiefs, and the Pakistan armed forces also reiterated their support for the people of Kashmir.