MUZAFFARABAD: Welcoming the upcoming Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) foreign ministers’ conference, Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Prime Minister Sardar Abdul Qayyum Niazi on Sunday expressed the hope that the inter-governmental organisation would raise a strong voice for the issues of the Ummah, particularly the people of India-occupied Kashmir who had been going through unabating repression at the hands of India’s occupation machinery.

In a statement, Mr Niazi maintained that hosting the second OIC sitting in a short span of time was a great diplomatic achievement of Prime Minister Imran Khan.

“Pakistan is now [placed] in a better position at the diplomatic front owing to Prime Minister Imran Khan’s pragmatic policies,” he said.

Terming inclusion of Kashmir issue in the agenda of the OIC conference as a significant development, the AJK premier however voiced serious concern over the world community’s silence at the sufferings of the people of Palestine and India-occupied Kashmir.

Urging the international community to shun its “policy of indifference” towards the problems confronting the Muslim world, he said it was high time that the international community and influential world governments came forward and played their role in resolution of the issues of Kashmir and Palestine.

The AJK prime minister maintained that under the prevailing circumstances there was a dire need for unity and harmony among the Muslim states in the larger interest of the Ummah.

While unity among the Muslim nations was sine qua non for resolution of Kashmir and Palestine issues, the global peace was also inescapably linked with the just settlement of both issues, he said.—Staff Correspondent