Stop dragging your feet on Kashmir: Pakistan to OIC

Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi in an unusually sharp warning asked Saudi Arabia-led Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) on Wednesday to stop dilly-dallying on the convening of a meeting of its Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM) on Kashmir.

Qureshi, as per Dawn was speaking during a talk show on ARY when he said: “I am once again respectfully telling OIC that a meeting of the Council of Foreign Ministers is our expectation. If you cannot convene it, then I’ll be compelled to ask Prime Minister Imran Khan to call a meeting of the Islamic countries that are ready to stand with us on the issue of Kashmir and support the oppressed Kashmiris.”

He, according to the report, said that if OIC fails to summon the CFM meeting, Pakistan would be ready to go for a session outside OIC and the country “cannot not wait any further”.

Pakistan has been pushing for the foreign ministers’ meeting of the 57-member bloc of Muslim countries, which is the second largest intergovernmental body after the UN.

Qureshi said Pakistan skipped the Kuala Lumpur Summit last December on a Saudi Arabia’s request and now Pakistani Muslims are demanding Riyadh to “show leadership on the issue”.

Earlier, the Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan has also assured his support to Pakistan’s stance on the Kashmir issue in a conversation with Pakistan president Arif Alvi.