Pakistan rejects India's 'preposterous comments' on Pak-China joint statement

• "There is strong evidence of Indian involvement in recent sinister attempts to stir up unrest in Balochistan by supporting anti-state elements," says MOFA. 
• Naval CommanderJadhav is "living and irrefutable proof" of how India has been seeking to sponsor and patronise subversive activities in Pakistan, per statement.
• Statement says Pakistan will continue to extend all possible support to Kashmiris in their just struggle against India’s illegal occupation. 

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has categorically rejected the "unwarranted and preposterous comments" made by the spokesperson of the Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) about the joint statement issued by Pakistan and China on February 6, the Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) said Thursday.

According to a statement issued by the foreign office, Pakistan also strongly rejects India’s persistent propaganda against the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC), adding that Pakistan has shared irrefutable evidence of India’s sinister campaign to sabotage CPEC through its dossiers released in 2020 and 2021.

"There is strong evidence of Indian involvement in the recent sinister attempts to stir up unrest in Balochistan by supporting anti-state elements," it said. 

The statement further said that Naval Commander Kulbhushan Jadhav is "living and irrefutable proof" of how India has been seeking to sponsor and patronise subversive activities in Pakistan and the region.

"Similarly, New Delhi’s baseless claims over Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) can neither change the facts of history nor the legal status of the Jammu & Kashmir dispute. IIOJK never was and never will be India’s 'integral part'", per the statement.

It maintained that "the irrefutable fact remains that India is an occupation force in IIOJK in clear violation of the relevant United Nations Security Council (UNSC) resolutions, and its illegal and unilateral actions of August 5, 2019 — seeking to change the internationally recognised disputed status of IIOJK and to alter its demographic structure — have been rejected by the Kashmiris, by Pakistan, and by the international community."

The MOFA statement added that Pakistan will continue to extend all possible support to Kashmiris in their just struggle against India’s illegal occupation. 

"Rather than resorting to false and misleading assertions without success, India must vacate its illegal occupation of the disputed territory, immediately reverse its illegal and unilateral actions of August 5, 2019  and let Kashmiris exercise their inalienable right to self-determination through a free and impartial plebiscite under the auspices of the United Nations (UN) as enshrined in the relevant UNSC resolutions," it said.