Pakistan cancelled an upcoming conference of lawmakers from Commonwealth countries on Thursday after a feud with India over the disputed region of Kashmir, a sign of increasing tensions between the South Asian neighbors.
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The Speaker made this announcement in a news conference on Thursday after emergency teleconference of Executive Committee of the Commonwealth Parliamentary Association.
“A detailed letter will be written to the CPA countries over the Kashmir dispute and the Kashmir issue will be raised on every forum of the Commonwealth”, he added.
It may be recalled that on August 11, Pakistan had said that come what may, it would not invite the Speaker of the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly to the Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference in Islamabad. Meanwhile, National Conference leader said such meetings should rather take place in order to better ties between the two nations. Islamabad refused, saying that Kashmir was disputed territory.
Pakistan had also then said that if India wanted to boycott the meeting it was “their choice and we cannot budge from our stand”.
Pakistan has cancelled a conference of lawmakers from Commonwealth countries after a feud with India over Kashmir. This was declared by the Speaker of the National Assembly Mr Ayaz Sadiq.
There are outstanding UN Security Council’s resolutions on Jammu and Kashmir, which call for the Kashmiris’ right to self-determination through a free and impartial plebiscite under the UN auspices. The unsettled dispute remains the flashpoint for regional peace and stability and is very much alive on the United Nations’ agenda, it said.
He said that the relevant UNSC resolutions rule out any alternative to Plebiscite in Jammu &Kashmir as a possible disposition of this issue.
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“A meeting of Speakers of all states unanimously decided that India will boycott the meeting of the CPU if the Speaker of the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly is not invited”, Lok Sabha Speaker Sumitra Mahajan had said.
