Pakistan rejects the gratuitous, unwarranted and baseless remarks made by the spokesperson of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs regarding the references to Jammu and Kashmir in the Joint Press Release issued on the occasion of 3rd Session of Strategic Dialogue between the Foreign Ministers of Pakistan and China.

Foreign Office spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri, in a statement today (Friday), said India has no locus standi on the matter whatsoever. He said Jammu and Kashmir is an internationally recognized dispute. He said parts of Jammu and Kashmir are under illegal Indian occupation. He added that the Jammu and Kashmir dispute is the oldest item on the agenda of the United Nations Security Council, pending resolution due to Indian intransigence.

The spokesperson said regurgitation of false and fabricated claims by India does not change the reality that it is India which is in illegal occupation of parts of Jammu and Kashmir for more than seven decades. He said Jammu and Kashmir never was and never will be so-called integral part of India.

The statement said numerous UNSC resolutions have established that the final disposition of Jammu and Kashmir will be made in accordance with the wishes of the Kashmiris through a free and impartial plebiscite under the UN auspices.

The spokesperson said India's illegal and unilateral actions of 5 August 2019 seeking to alter the internationally recognized disputed status of Jammu and Kashmir and to change the demographic structure of the occupied territory are in clear violation of the UN Charter, relevant UNSC resolutions, and international law. He said India must immediately end its illegal occupation of parts of Jammu and Kashmir, stop its egregious violations of human rights in IIOJK, and take steps for full implementation of the relevant UNSC resolutions on the Jammu and Kashmir dispute.