“He said that his visit should provide the opportunity to receive a briefing from Pakistan’s Foreign Secretary on progress in this regard”, Swarup said.
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Secretary General Ban Ki-moon’s deputy spokesperson Farhan Haq told reporters here on Wednesday, “The UN High Commissioner for Human Rights today (Wednesday) expressed deep regret at the failure of Indian and Pakistani authorities to grant his office access to Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan-administered Kashmir, given recent allegations of serious human rights violations”.
Zakaria said the United Nations and worldwide community should remind India that it must fulfil its commitment to give the right of self-determination to the people of Jammu and Kashmir as per Security Council resolutions.
Holding India’s diplomacy as “more practical and result-oriented”, Jaishankar said, “India, in the last two years, has taken strident steps to reach out to Pakistan to ensure cordial relationship, while acknowledging that it has not achieved desired result”.
Amid a debate over Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s comments on Balochistan in his Independence Day address, Government feels it was an expression of concern for people of the Pakistan’s troubled region and that India’s humanity does not stop at its border.
Prime Minister Modi had brought up Pakistani atrocities on people of Balochistan and PoK in his Independence Day speech.
“It is the violation of the UN Charter.He (Modi) crossed the red line by talking about Balochistan”, Zakaria said.
Jaishankar said that the issue of terrorism makes the Indo-Pak relationship hard to grow.
“Since aspects related to cross-border terrorism are central to the current situation in Jammu & Kashmir, we have proposed that discussions between the foreign secretaries focus on them”.
“Foreign Secretary also said that he looks forward to discussing with his counterpart, at earliest possible, the vacation of Pakistan’s illegal occupation of the Indian state of Jammu and Kashmir”, he added.
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Meanwhile, the US State Department, while distancing itself from India’s claims over Azad Kashmir, has urged Pakistan and India to work jointly to resolve the Kashmir issue, which Pakistan warns has the potential to lead to yet another war between South Asia’s t wo nuclear-armed states.
