Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar has urged OIC member states to maintain a unified position on Jammu and Kashmir at the United Nations and other international fora.

He was addressing the ministerial Meeting of the OIC Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir on the sidelines of the 81st session of the UN General Assembly in New York.

Ishaq Dar said the OIC should call upon India to reverse all illegal measures taken since 5 August 2019, halt demographic engineering and attacks on Kashmiri political, religious and cultural identity, and release political prisoners and all those arbitrarily detained.

He said the organization should demand unrestricted access to Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir for the OIC Special Envoy and Fact-Finding Mission, OHCHR, UN Special Procedures, international media and independent observers, and support credible international accountability for serious human rights violations.

The Deputy Prime Minister expressed gratitude to the OIC for consistently standing up with their Kashmiri brothers and sisters. He said our challenge now is to translate this principled solidarity into sustained diplomatic action.

Ishaq Dar reiterated Pakistan's commitment to a just and peaceful settlement of the dispute in accordance with the relevant UN Security Council resolutions and the wishes of the Kashmiri people.

He recalled that Jammu and Kashmir remains an internationally recognized dispute on the agenda of the UN Security Council and stressed that no domestic legislation, judicial verdict, electoral exercise, or demographic manipulation could substitute for the Kashmiri people's inalienable right to self-determination.

Ishaq Dar said India’s unilateral attempt to hold the Indus Waters Treaty in abeyance has introduced another dangerous dimension. He emphasized that the Treaty is a binding international agreement and contains no provision permitting its unilateral suspension.