NEW YORK – Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has said that Pakistan wants peace with all its neighbours, including India.
Speaking at the 77th United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) in New York on Friday, Sharif said that Pakistan wanted “long-term” peace with India and that was possible only after a "just and lasting" resolution of the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) dispute.
"India must take credible steps to create enabling environment for constructive engagement," said the PM, adding that it should "demonstrate its sincerity and willingness to walk the path of peace and dialogue by reversing its illegal steps of 15 August 2019 and ending forthwith the process of demographic change."
The Pakistani prime minister said that Kashmiris were facing extrajudicial killings, incarceration, custodial torture and death at the hands of the Indian forces. He said India was seeking to turn Kashmir, a Muslim-majority region, into a Hindu-majority territory.
Expressing the hope that the UN and Secretary-General António Guterres would play their role in having India implement the UN resolutions on the Kashmir dispute, Sharif said Pakistan would stand by Kashmiris "until their right to self-determination is fully realised in accordance with the relevant UN Security Council resolutions".