Pakistan says it will take its Kashmir dispute with India to the United Nations’ (UN’s) top judicial body, the International Court of Justice (ICJ).
Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi announced this on Tuesday.
The announcement comes after India earlier this month ended the semi-autonomous status conferred on the Indian-administered part of Kashmir and put it on a security lockdown, escalating a long-running feud with Pakistan over control of the region.
Pakistan and India control only parts of Kashmir, but each has laid claim to the entire region since they gained independence from Britain in 1947.
“An in-principle decision has been taken to take the issue of disputed Kashmir to the International Court of Justice,” Qureshi was quoted as saying by local media.
Qureshi said that all legal aspects of the matter were considered before the decision and that the matter would be taken to the court as early as possible, Geo TV reported.
The ICJ is the UN’s main judicial body and is based in the Hague.
Firdous Ashiq Awan, special assistant to Prime Minister Imran Khan, said that the case to be presented would focus on the violation of human rights and genocide in occupied Kashmir, Dawn News reported.
On Friday, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) held a closed-door meeting on the disputed territories of Jammu and Kashmir for the first time in 50 years. Pakistan welcomed the meeting, calling it a diplomatic win.
U.S. President Donald Trump also spoke to the leaders of both countries in recent days in a bid to reduce rising tensions between the nuclear powers.
dpa/NAN
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