Pakistan’s Prime Minister:
Palestine, Kashmir, Islamophobia Among Simmering Issues
KARACHI/ISLAMABAD (Dispatches) -- Pakistan’s Prime Minister Imran Khan has urged the UN, and the international community to act to resolve the long-smoldering disputes of Palestine and Kashmir, which posed a threat to global peace.
Addressing the 75th session of the UN General Assembly through video link, Khan spoke in length on the simmering issues ranging from the occupying regime of Israel’s illegal annexation of Palestinian territories and human rights violations in Indian-administered Kashmir, and from the rising trend of Islamophobia, to ongoing Afghan peace process.
"International agreements have been flouted and set aside. Conflicts are proliferating and intensifying,” Khan said, urging the UN secretary general to "take the lead in preventing global conflicts,” and convene summit-level meetings to address regional hotspots and resolve outstanding disputes.
Reiterating his country’s opposition to New Delhi’s scrapping of the longstanding semi-autonomous status of disputed Jammu and Kashmir August last year, Khan said: "India illegally and unilaterally sought to change the status of the occupied territories and deployed additional troops, bringing the total number to 900,000 to impose a military siege on 8 million Kashmiris.”
Dubbing the annexation of Palestinian territory by the Zionist regime as illegal, Khan noted the building of illegal settlements and the imposition of inhuman living conditions on the Palestinian people, especially in Gaza cannot bring peace to a troubled region.
"Palestine remains a festering wound. A just and lasting settlement is indispensable, for the Middle East and the world,” he observed.
Khan also urged Afghan leaders to seize the "historic” opportunity to achieve reconciliation and restore peace in their country.
Expressing concern over rising trends of Islamophobia across the globe, Khan called for declaring the "willful provocations” and incitement to hate and violence universally outlawed.
"The (COVID-19) pandemic was an opportunity to bring humanity together. Unfortunately, it has instead fanned nationalism, increased global tensions, and given rise to racial and religious hatred and violence against vulnerable minorities in several places,” he observed. "These trends have also accentuated Islamophobia.”
He said Muslims continue to be targeted with impunity in many countries.
"Our shrines are being destroyed; our Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon Him) insulted; the Holy Qur’an burned – and all this in the name of freedom of speech,” he noted, describing the recent violence against Muslims in Europe, including the republication of blasphemous sketches by French magazine Charlie Hebdo, as recent examples of the growing Islamophobia.
Addressing the 75th session of the UN General Assembly through video link, Khan spoke in length on the simmering issues ranging from the occupying regime of Israel’s illegal annexation of Palestinian territories and human rights violations in Indian-administered Kashmir, and from the rising trend of Islamophobia, to ongoing Afghan peace process.
"International agreements have been flouted and set aside. Conflicts are proliferating and intensifying,” Khan said, urging the UN secretary general to "take the lead in preventing global conflicts,” and convene summit-level meetings to address regional hotspots and resolve outstanding disputes.
Reiterating his country’s opposition to New Delhi’s scrapping of the longstanding semi-autonomous status of disputed Jammu and Kashmir August last year, Khan said: "India illegally and unilaterally sought to change the status of the occupied territories and deployed additional troops, bringing the total number to 900,000 to impose a military siege on 8 million Kashmiris.”
Dubbing the annexation of Palestinian territory by the Zionist regime as illegal, Khan noted the building of illegal settlements and the imposition of inhuman living conditions on the Palestinian people, especially in Gaza cannot bring peace to a troubled region.
"Palestine remains a festering wound. A just and lasting settlement is indispensable, for the Middle East and the world,” he observed.
Khan also urged Afghan leaders to seize the "historic” opportunity to achieve reconciliation and restore peace in their country.
Expressing concern over rising trends of Islamophobia across the globe, Khan called for declaring the "willful provocations” and incitement to hate and violence universally outlawed.
"The (COVID-19) pandemic was an opportunity to bring humanity together. Unfortunately, it has instead fanned nationalism, increased global tensions, and given rise to racial and religious hatred and violence against vulnerable minorities in several places,” he observed. "These trends have also accentuated Islamophobia.”
He said Muslims continue to be targeted with impunity in many countries.
"Our shrines are being destroyed; our Prophet Muhammad (Peace be upon Him) insulted; the Holy Qur’an burned – and all this in the name of freedom of speech,” he noted, describing the recent violence against Muslims in Europe, including the republication of blasphemous sketches by French magazine Charlie Hebdo, as recent examples of the growing Islamophobia.