Pakistan has warned that human security was not possible without allowing the people to exercise their fundamental right to self-determination, like those struggling for freedom in Palestine and Indian Occupied Kashmir.
“Human Security cannot be guaranteed when people over the world are denied their fundamental right to self-determination,” Senator Mohsin Aziz, the Pakistani representative, told the Annual Parliamentary Hearing, a joint initiative between the President of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) and the Inter-Parliamentary Union (IPU).
UNGA President Dennis Francis and IPU President Tulia Ackson are hosting some 300 participants, including parliamentarians, Speakers of Parliament, advisers and experts, from more than 70 countries at the UN Headquarters in New York, USA.
Organizers said the theme of this joint IPU-UN hearing will align with the IPU’s primary focus in 2024 on peace and international security, which is also one of the priorities of the current presidency of the UN General Assembly.
In his remarks at the Hearing, Senator Aziz said that the past four months have illustrated the consequences of the suppression of the right to self-determination of the Palestinian people — over 27,000 civilians killed by the Israeli onslaught in Gaza, mostly women and children.
“The deliberate obstructions of humanitarian aid have further exacerbated the suffering of 2 million displaced Palestinians,” the Pakistan representative said. In this regard, Senator Aziz reaffirmed Pakistan’s full support and solidarity with the Palestinian brothers and sisters in these tragic times.
“How much more blood, starvation, brutality and misery the world has to witness before we can come to a ceasefire and a reduction in the suffering of Palestinians in general,” he asked. Senator Aziz also drew the attention of the gathering to the denial of the right to self-determination to the people of Jammu & Kashmir where over 100,000 people have been martyred in their freedom struggle.
The Kashmir tragedy, he said, has intensified after the unilateral measures taken by India on the 5th of August 2019.
More than 900,000 occupation troops have unleashed a brutal crackdown, committing extrajudicial killings, and abducting 15,000 Kashmiri youth.
“Simultaneously, a concerted effort is underway to change the demographic structure and composition of the occupied territory, a direct violation of the resolutions of the Security Council,” the Pakistani representative added. As regards the situation in post-American-withdrawal Afghanistan, Senator Aziz said the threat from terrorist organizations, within and from that country persists.
In addition to TTP and ISIS, he said, the Islamic State of Khorasan, an offshoot of ISIS, which is hiding in Afghanistan, was responsible for an increasing number of terrorist attacks in Pakistan. “If left unchecked they can threaten the peace of other countries and regions as well.”
In conclusion, Senator Aziz reiterated that “achieving human security will not be possible without ensuring peace, security, and stability, and without allowing people to exercise their fundamental right to self-determination.”
