Pakistani Ambassador Omar Khan Ali Sherzai said Tuesday that even after six decades, the pledges made by Indian leaders with regard to people in Jammu and Kashmir had not been realized. In a message read out by acting Pakistan Consul General Dr. Muhammad Faisal at a meeting held by the Jammu and Kashmir Committee at the residence of the Consul General in Jeddah last week, Sherzai said: “The UN Security Council has affirmed the Kashmiris' right of self-determination. This specific pledge is also yet to be realized. The valiant Kashmiris are facing tortures, imprisonment and extrajudicial killings in their efforts to achieve their right of self-determination.” “Pakistan,” he added, “is committed to a just and peaceful solution of the Kashmir dispute in accordance with the Security Council's resolutions. For a sustainable peace, India must honor the aspirations of the Kashmiri people and withdraw its forces from the occupied territory and engage Pakistan in dialogue over Jammu and Kashmir.” Sherzai said that among other international bodies Pakistan is grateful to the Organization of Islamic Conference (OIC), “which took a serious note of Indian intransigence during the 36th session of the Council of Foreign Ministers at Damascus over the issue of Jammu and Kashmir”. Omar Ba-Dahdah, director of the World Assembly of Muslim Youth (WAMY), said his organization has supported the cause of the Kashmiri people for the last 36 years. ”King Abdullah, Custodian of the Two Holy Mosques, has always wholeheartedly supported the genuine call of the Kashmiri people,” he said, adding the WAMY will continue to extend its full support to the Kashmiri people until they realize their goal. Masud Ahmed Puri, president of the Kashmir Committee, said the UN and other international organizations should extend their efforts for a solution of the disputed region so that the Kashmiris can obtain their right of freedom.
