ISLAMABAD : Pakistan has categorically rejected Indian Defence Minister’s unwarranted comments regarding Gilgit-Baltistan. Foreign Office, in a statement Tuesday, said that India has no locus standi whatsoever on the issue. It said gratuitous repetition of false claims by the RSS-BJP leaders, one after the other, for political point-scoring can neither change facts nor can it draw attention away from the reprehensible human rights violations being perpetrated against the Kashmiri people by Indian occupation forces in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir. The Foreign Office said Pakistan’s principled position on the Jammu and Kashmir dispute remains firmly anchored in the relevant United Nations Security Council Resolutions.
It said administrative, political and economic reforms are a long-standing demand of the people of Gilgit-Baltistan. The envisaged provisional reforms reflect the aspirations of the indigenous populace of Gilgit-Baltistan. The Foreign Office called upon India to immediately end its illegal and forcible occupation of parts of Jammu and Kashmir. It said India must comply with its international obligations by allowing Kashmiris to exercise their inalienable right to self-determination through a free and impartial plebiscite under the auspices of the United Nations as enshrined in the relevant UN Security Council resolutions. NNI
