Amid isolation, Sharif harps on Kashmir issue

United Nations: Pakistan Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif has raised the Kashmir issue with almost every world leader he has held talks with on the sidelines of the UN General Assembly session, but his efforts to <g data-gr-id="18">internationalise</g> the dispute with India appeared to have gained no traction.

Sharif raised the issue with the leaders of the US, the UK, Japan and Turkey and sought their intervention to resolve the matter. He met Japanese Prime Minister Shinzo Abe and Turkey’s President Recep Tayyip Erdogan here on Tuesday.

“PM Sharif briefed Japanese PM about the grave turn that the situation in occupied Kashmir is taking. Reminded him about UNSC resolutions,” Pakistan’s envoy to the UN Maleeha Lodhi tweeted.

“PM Nawaz Sharif also apprised his Japanese counterpart of the human rights violations being committed by Indian occupation forces in Kashmir,” Lodhi tweeted.

Erdogan and Sharif “agreed that OIC (Organisation of Islamic Cooperation) Commission on Human Rights should send a fact-finding mission” to Kashmir, she said.

On Monday, Sharif held bilateral talks with US Secretary of State John Kerry and UK Prime Minister Theresa May. 

However, Sharif’s repeated calls to the UN to help resolve the Kashmir dispute appeared to be gaining no traction as UN Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon made no reference to Kashmir in his final speech to the UNGA as the UN chief.