Pakistan emphasises NAM role for resolution of Kashmir dispute

Pakistan on Thursday urged the Non-Aligned Movement (NAM) and the international community to promote a just, peaceful and expeditious resolution of longstanding Jammu and Kashmir dispute as per the UNSC resolutions and aspirations of the Kashmiri people. “;Foreign intervention and occupation, and the accompanying denial of the right to self-determination to peoples, are of the root cause of conflicts and disputes and of grave violations of human rights. This is manifest in Indian Illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK),” Minister for Economic Affairs Sardar Ayaz Sadiq said addressing the summit level meeting of the NAM Contact Group in response to COVID-19 on post-pandemic global recovery in Baku. The minister, who headed the Pakistani delegation at the summit, said the decisive condition for achieving all our development goals rested on the promotion of just and durable peace and security, nationally, regionally and globally. “;It is impossible to talk about a post-pandemic global recovery against the backdrop of wars, conflicts and foreign occupation,” the minister told the meeting attended by delegates representing from around 70 countries and chaired by Azerbaijan President Ilham Aliyev as NAM chair. He said Pakistan deeply valued the NAM’s fundamental ideals, especially its principled support for the right to self-determination of people living under foreign occupation. He said NAM, which numbered two-thirds of UN member states, had a critical role to play in shaping the post-pandemic global recovery. Proposing a comprehensive and cooperative strategy to “;build forward better” which, the minister said, should include, ensuring global food security through the urgent provision of food supplies to the 250 million living in hunger. The strategy should also feature urgent and adequate concessional financing for developing countries facing liquidity challenges, reform of the international financial architecture, through a comprehensive debt solution and implementation of the climate change agenda and climate commitments, especially the fulfillment of the climate finance commitments and the launch of the Loss & Damage fund agreed at COP27. “;Climate justice requires full adherence to the Principle of Equity and Common but Differentiated Responsibilities and Respective Capabilities,” the minister said. He also suggested the mobilization of large-scale investment from the public and private sector to build sustainable and resilient infrastructure, in developing countries. He told the international gathering that the COVID-19 pandemic wreaked havoc worldwide, putting the lives of billions of people around the globe in turmoil, inflicting grave suffering and destabilizing the global economy. Besides exposing the fragility of the societies and economies to shocks, it has laid bare deep inequalities threatening the achievement of the SDGs, the said COVID-related challenges were further compounded by the inflationary spiral caused by supply chain disruptions and the impact of the war in Ukraine, the minister said. “;The crowning blow to our endeavour for sustainable development was the devastating floods last summer – our worst disaster in history,” he told the summit. He said the floods left one third of Pakistan submerged killed over 1700 people, injured 15,000 and displaced eight million others besides destroying over 2 million homes and over four million acres of agricultural land. “;An estimated 9 million more people in Pakistan could descend into poverty’ as a direct consequence of these floods.” Appreciating the support by the development partners to Pakistan’s 4RF framework plan for resilient rehabilitation, recovery and reconstruction, the minister conveyed solidarity with Turkiye and its people as they moved to the recovery and rehabilitation phase. He also assured Pakistan’s continuous all possible assistance to Turkiye for rehabilitation and reconstruction. Minister Ayaz Sadiq said the “;poly crises” of COVID, climate change and conflicts had affected developing countries disproportionately and reversed their efforts to achieve the SDGs. “;Two hundred and fifty million people in the global South face hunger, around a 100 million have been pushed back into poverty. Nearly 60 developing countries are in debt distress,” he remarked and emphasized the NAM’s role on responding to these monumental challenges confronting the developing countries.