OIC human rights panel to arrive next week

islamabad — An eight-member delegation of human rights observers from the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) will visit Pakistan and Indian-administered Kashmir next week to get the “first-hand understanding” of the Kashmir issue, the government said.

The delegation of the Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission (IPHRC) belonging to eight different OIC countries will be led by IPHRC chairperson Med S Kaggwa and will visit Pakistan and Indian Kashmir from March 27 to 29, foreign office said.

It said the delegation had plans to visit the entire Kashmir but India did not respond to a request by the OIC for the visit.

“The IPHRC requested the Indian authorities for access to Kashmir to assess the human rights situation there. However, India has not responded to the IPHRC request to date,” the FO said. India has maintained that OIC, a grouping of 57 Muslim countries, has no locus standi in the Kashmir issue.

Pakistan Foreign Office said that last year the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights offered to send a fact-finding mission to Kashmir, but the request was also denied by India.

The delegation will also call on President Mamnoon Hussain, Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif and adviser on Foreign Affairs and Minister for Kashmir Affairs and Gilgit Baltistan. — PTI