ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi has said that multilateral cooperation remains a corner stone of Pakistan’s foreign policy.
In his message on the occasion of the United Nations Day on Thursday (October 24), the foreign minister said that Pakistan joins the international community in celebrating the 74th Anniversary of the founding of the United Nations.
Qureshi said that since its creation, the UN has been at the forefront of promoting international peace and security, human rights and human dignity.
“Our longstanding collaboration with the United Nations is manifested, among others, by our contribution to UN peacekeeping. As a consistent top troop contributing country, over 200,000 of our Blue Helmets have served with distinction and honour in 46 Missions across the world,” he said.
The foreign minister said that the United Nations has played an active role in the struggle against colonialism and in promoting fundamental human rights. He said that peoples right to self-determination lies at the heart of this quest. Yet such a universal value is being trampled upon in Indian Occupied Jammu and Kashmir.
Shah Mahmood Qureshi said that the situation in Indian Occupied Jammu & Kashmir (IOJ&K) has been further exacerbated by persistent clampdown imposed by the Indian government after its illegal actions of August 5. He said that the Kashmir dispute remains on the agenda of the United Nations Security Council. He added that the meeting of the UN Security Council on August 16 unequivocally reaffirmed this fact.
“As we celebrate UN Day, I call on the international community, and especially the UN Security Council to work towards ending the reign of terror imposed in IOJ&K by occupation forces. Resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute through implementation of UNSC resolutions that call for determining the will of the Kashmiri people through a free and fair plebiscite, under the UN auspices, is imperative.
We stand ready to work with the United Nations to pursue the high ideals espoused in the UN Charter, and making this Organization fit for purpose and relevant for all,” Qureshi added.
