ISLAMABAD, Pakistan: The new Foreign Minister Khawaja Muhammad Asif has assumed charge of the Office, and the Adviser on Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz has bid farewell to the ministry.
In his opening remarks at the weekly press briefing in Islamabad on Thursday, the Foreign Office Spokesman Nafees Zakaria told that the new foreign minister met senior officials of the Ministry during which the foreign policy objectives were reviewed.
Khawaja Asif also shared his vision of meeting the challenges and availing the opportunities in the realm of inter-state relations from Pakistan’s perspectives.
The Foreign Office Spokesman further told that the National Assembly Speaker of Republic of Korea Chung Sye-Kyun paid a fruitful visit this week and, inter alia, held meeting with the Foreign Minister.
The Korean national assembly speaker expressed keen interest in Korean investments in Pakistan and deepening economic cooperation, the Spokesman said.
Taking about the human rights situation in Indian Occupied Kashmir, Zakaria said that 15 Kashmiris have been martyred, mostly youth this week whereas last week the count was 8. He said that these brutal killings by Indian forces are going on and on.
The Spokesman said that the statistics of Kashmiris’ sufferings on various counts as a result of Indian barbarities, and impunity with which Indian forces are committing the crimes against humanity, challenge the credibility of International Community’s commitment to human rights, particularly the so-called protectors and defenders of human rights.
“We will not be incorrect if we term these killings of defenseless Kashmiri youth, women, children and old age, by Indian forces as ‘genocide’,” he said.
Nafees Zakaria said that Indian policy of killing innocent Kashmiris is part of a strategy to break the spirit of Kashmiris, alter the demography in Jammu & Kashmir and to convert it into a Muslim minority from an overwhelming Muslim majority state.
Zakaria said that besides killing Kashmiris in scores, the other measures that India has taken are settling non-Kashmiris, accommodating Indian forces personnel, who have been committing crimes against humanity, exclusive colonies for political manipulation, etc.
The Spokesman said that with these measures, India is bringing material change to the Indian occupied Jammu & Kashmir which is a violation of United National Security Council (UNSC) resolution on Jammu & Kashmir.
“India is also in grave violation of UN Charter and all the UN instruments on human rights and fundamental rights,” he said.
