Left Red-faced After Baloch Activists 'Genocide' Claims, Imran Khan Set for Mega Rally in Pak-Occupied Kashmir

Islamabad: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan is set to make a "policy statement" on Kashmir on Friday during his public address at the PoK's capital Muzaffarabad.

Announcing this during his weekly media briefing here on Thursday, Foreign Office Spokesperson Mohammad Faisal said Pakistan is ready for any third-party mediation to resolve the Kashmir issue and asserted that the legality of the matter is based on international law. "Mediation offers (on Kashmir) are there but India is not ready. We are ready for it. Our considered view is that all problems can be solved through talks," he said.

Faisal said Prime Minister Khan in his public address in Muzaffarabad would make a "policy statement on Kashmir." However, the Foreign Office spokesperson did not elaborate.

Reacting to the Kashmir issue again, Khan on Thursday claimed that 58 countries had joined Pakistan in the Human Rights Council "reinforcing" the demand of the international community on India to lift the restrictions and "protect Kashmiris' rights".

"I commend the 58 countries that joined Pakistan in Human Rights Council on 10 Sept reinforcing demands of the international community for India to stop use of force, lift siege, remove other restrictions, respect and protect Kashmiris' rights and resolve Kashmir dispute through UNSC resolutions," he said in a tweet. Khan said in the second tweet, "I welcome the EU's call in the Human Rights Council for a peaceful solution of the Kashmir dispute in line with UNSC resolutions, international law and bilateral agreements."

Earlier on Tuesday at the UNHRC meeting in Geneva, India firmly rejected Pakistan's allegations, saying a "fabricated narrative" on Jammu and Kashmir has come from "the epicentre of global terrorism" and from a nation, which conducts cross-border terrorism as a form of 'alternate diplomacy'.

India maintains that Kashmir is a bilateral issue between India and Pakistan and there was no role for a third party. New Delhi has also made it clear to Pakistan that cross-border terror attacks and talks cannot go hand in hand.

The Pakistan Foreign Office said, "Kashmir struggle is a process and not an event. We have taken some actions and more actions can follow."

To a question, he said the legality of the Kashmir issue was based on international law. He said the statement on Kashmir by the chief of UN Human Rights Council showed a "growing concerns" of international community about the situation in Kashmir.

The development comes even as Baloch political activists and human rights defenders shredded Pakistan for atrocities and gross human rights violations against Baloch people. To make matters worse for Islamabad, country's Interior Minister admitted on national television that Pakistan spent millions of rupees on terror outfit Jamat-ud-Dawa (JuD), the country's Interior Minister admitted on national television.

Brigadier Ijaz Ahmed Shah said the Imran Khan government has spent millions of rupees on the terror outfit to attach them to the mainstream. Speaking to journalist Nadeem Malik during a talk show aired on a Pakistani private news channel Hum News, the minister said, "We have spent millions of rupees on JuD. We need to demotivate the members of the proscribed organisation and bring them down to the mainstream."

Meanwhile, Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi said that Pakistan would continue to raise voice for the rights of Kashmiri people at every forum. He was speaking at Islamabad airport on Thursday on his return from a three-day visit to Geneva where he apprised the UN Human Rights Council of human rights situations in Kashmir.

He said that the Kashmiri people are not alone in their just struggle for right to self-determination and Pakistan will continue to extend moral, political and diplomatic support to their Kashmiri brethren. Tensions between India and Pakistan spiked after New Delhi abrogated provisions of Article 370 of the Constitution to withdraw Jammu and Kashmir's special status and bifurcated it into two Union Territories.

Pakistan downgraded its diplomatic relations with India and expelled the Indian high commissioner following the revocation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir on August 5.