Islamabad: Pakistan on Tuesday said it will approach the International Court of Justice (ICJ) over the Kashmir issue, weeks after India revoked the special status to Jammu and Kashmir.
"An in-principle decision has been taken to take the issue of Kashmir to the International Court of Justice," Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi told a TVchannel.
Prime Minister Imran Khan told a rare joint sitting of Pakistan's Parliament on August 6 that he will raise the Kashmir issue at every forum including the UN Security Council and also take the matter to the ICJ.
Tensions between India and Pakistan spiked after India abrogated provisions of Article 370 of the Constitution to withdraw Jammu and Kashmir's special status and bifurcated it into two Union Territories, evoking strong reactions from Pakistan.
India has categorically told the international community that the scrapping of Article 370 of the Constitution to revoke the special status of Jammu and Kashmir was an internal matter and also advised Pakistan to accept the reality.
On August 16, the UN Security Council held a rare closed door meeting on the Kashmir issue upon the request of Pakistan and China.
Briefing the media following the conclusion of the informal meeting requested by China and Pakistan, India's Permanent Representative to the UN Syed Akbaruddin said India's position was and remains that matters related to the Article 370 of the Constitution are entirely an internal matter of India and these have no external ramifications.
Without naming Pakistan, he said there are some who are trying to project an "alarmist approach" to the situation in Kashmir, which is far from the ground realities.
"Stop terror to start talks," he asserted.
After the meeting, Pakistan's ambassador to the UN, Maleeha Lodhi said the very fact the UNSC meeting had taken place is "testimony to the fact that this is an internationally recognised dispute".
After the UNSC meeting, Chinese Ambassador to the UN Zhang Jun urged India and Pakistan to settle their differences peacefully and "discard the zero-sum game mentality".
"We call upon relevant parties to exercise peace and not to take actions that will aggravate tensions," he said.
Voicing China's stand on India revoking the special status of Kashmir, he said "the unilateral action by India has changed the status quo in Kashmir, which is an internationally recognised dispute."
Voicing Beijing's opposition to India forming a separate Union Territory of Ladakh after revocation of the special status of Kashmir, he said: "India's actions have also challenged China's sovereign interests and violated bilateral agreements in maintaining peace and stability in the border areas, and China is very much concerned."
"I want to emphasise that such unilateral practice by India is not valid in relation to China, and will not change China's exercise of sovereignty and effective administrative jurisdiction over the territory," he said.
India and Pakistan did not attend the UNSC meeting, which was open only to the five permanent members and 10 non-permanent members.
According to UN records, the last time the UN Security Council discussed the the Kashmir issue was in 1965.
The International Court of Justice is the principal judicial organ of the United Nations. In the past, the ICJ had taken India’s side in the case of Kulbushan Yadav, a former Indian Navy officer who Pakistan arrested and was about to award the death penalty to. In a diplomatic victory for India, the ICJ asked Pakistan to review the sentence.
(With inputs from PTI)
