Pakistan president lauds Saudi Arabia, says India committing ‘genocide’ in Kashmir

Prime Minister Imran Khan receives President of Pakistan Dr. Arif Alvi at the Parliament House in Islamabad on September 12, 2019. ( PID photo)

President Dr. Arif Alvi addresses the Joint Session of the Parliament in Islamabad on Sept. 12, 2019. (PID)

• President Alvi maintains his country will not abandon Kashmiri people
• Says peace in Afghanistan will help open new trade corridors in the region

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s President Dr. Arif Alvi said on Thursday that India’s “policy of genocide in Kashmir” was posing a threat to global peace and stability while urging the United Nations to send its observers in Indian-administered Kashmir to gauge the level of human rights violations in that region.
“If the world fails to take stock of the genocide in Kashmir, this will threaten global peace and stability,” Alvi said in a wide-ranging speech to the joint sitting of Parliament amid protest by the opposition parties against the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government.
New Delhi stripped Kashmir of its limited constitutional autonomy on Aug 5, imposing a strict curfew and communications blackout in the valley after the move.
Pakistan strongly protested India’s “illegal and unilateral” action at all national and international forums, demanding the right of self-determination for the people of Kashmir.
 “Pakistan wants to make it clear it won’t tolerate genocide [in Kashmir by Indian forces],” he said. “The United Nations should send observers [in Kashmir] to assess the [human rights] situation.”
The president vowed to stand by the people of Kashmir and lauded the government’s efforts to raise the issue at international platforms. “The whole Pakistani nation stands by Kashmiris…and we will never abandon them,” he said.
Discussing the country’s foreign policy, he said it was the success of “Pakistan’s narrative” that the whole world had admitted that there was no military solution of the decades-old Afghan conflict.
“The Afghan conflict has a political solution and we want to see peace in Afghanistan,” he said, adding that durable peace in Afghanistan would help open new trade corridors in the region.
Recalling Pakistan’s longstanding relations with Saudi Arabia, President Alvi said: “Saudi Arabia has always stood by Pakistan in difficult times.”
“The nation has immense respect and reverence for Khadim-e-Haramain Sharifain [King Salman bin Abdul Aziz],” he added.