Director of the European Foundation for South Asian Studies (EFSAS), Junaid Qureshi, on Wednesday, urged the Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights to rectify the “serious inaccuracies” in its first-ever report on the situation in Jammu and Kashmir.
Addressing a general debate during the 41st Session of the UNHRC in Geneva, Qureshi stressed on the ‘illegal corruption’ by China under China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) through Gilgit Baltistan region, as well as the country’s occupation of 20 per cent of the state.
“In its first-ever Report on Jammu and Kashmir, the esteemed Office has altogether ignored the fact that China occupies more than 20 per cent of my Homeland,” said Qureshi.
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“The former High Commissioner has not been attentive to what happened in 1963 or 1974, but surely, the current High Commissioner must be aware that China is constructing the China Pakistan Economic Corridor through Gilgit Baltistan, which historically and legally remains an inseparable part of the disputed territory of Jammu and Kashmir, he added.
In his address, Qureshi put light on the “gifting of the Shaksgam Valley in 1963 to Beijing” by Pakistan, thereby “violating UN Security Council Resolution 47 and the criminal abrogation of the State Subject Rule in Gilgit Baltistan in 1974.”
Qureshi urged the High Commissioner to rectify the inaccuracies of the report so as to re-establish the trust of the people of Jammu and Kashmir in this UN Human Rights Body and its mechanisms.
“The utter omission of the illegal construction of the CPEC, which is in contravention of international law and the UN Security Council Resolutions on Jammu and Kashmir, and the continuous exploitation of my land as collateral by Pakistan while mortgaging the future of my people in order to defray its so-called ‘All-weather friendship’ with China, have indebted the current High Commissioner to rectify the serious inaccuracies of this report,” Qureshi concluded.