ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s upper house of parliament on Monday passed a resolution expressing the “profoundest grief and sorrow” on the assassination of Hamas leader Ismail Haniyeh in Tehran last week.

Wednesday’s assassination has aroused fears of direct conflict between Tehran and its arch-enemy Israel in a region shaken by Israel’s war in Gaza and a worsening conflict in Lebanon.

“The resolution, moved by Palwasha Mohammad Zai Khan, also condemned the human rights violations and unprovoked bombing of Israel in Beirut and the recent killing of 250 innocent civilians in Palestine in addition to thousands of others,” Radio Pakistan reported. 

“It said Israel is morphing into an international criminal and terrorist entity that is attacking Muslim Nations with impunity.”

The Senate recommended that the Organization of Islamic Cooperation and all Muslim countries unite to counter and restrain Israeli’s “terrorist agenda and ensure lifting of siege of Gaza to provide immediate assistance to the starving and injured civilians and halting of bombing at Gaza on immediate basis.”

Iran and Hamas have accused Israel of carrying out the strike that killed Haniyeh hours after he attended the inauguration of Iran’s new president. The Hamas political leader was buried on Friday in Qatar, where he was based.

The New York Times, citing unnamed sources, reported that the explosion which killed Haniyeh was a bomb that was covertly smuggled into the guesthouse where he was staying in Tehran two months ago.

Israeli officials have not claimed responsibility.
 

ISLAMABAD: Pakistani Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said on Monday granting due rights to the people of Kashmir and Palestine was the “only way” to maintain peace and stability in the region, state-run APP news agency reported.

The PM was speaking in a televised address to the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly on Youm-e-Istehsal, or Day of Exploitation, observed annually in Pakistan on August 5 against the revocation of the special status of Jammu and Kashmir by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government in 2019. Pakistan has been marking the day since August 5, 2020. 

The Himalayan Kashmir region has been disputed by the two nuclear-armed neighbors since they both received independence in 1947. The two countries have fought two of their three wars over the region and both claim it in full but rule it in part.

“The day is not far away when both India and Israel will be bound to give due rights to the people of Palestine and Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir as all ways other than this lead to total destruction,” Sharif said. 

“Pakistan has never thought of aggression with regard to its nuclear power. Therefore the better option is to adopt the peaceful way and sit together to find out the peaceful solution to the Kashmir dispute.”

The PM said Pakistan would continue to extend its “moral support” to the people of Kashmir until they won their “basic rights and freedoms,” accusing India of silencing the media in Kashmir as well as its “genuine leadership,” imprisoning thousands of Kashmiris for political reasons and outlawing at least 14 political organizations.

Sharif also spoke about the war in Gaza, where at least 39,550 Palestinians have been killed in an Israeli military campaign triggered by a Hamas-led attack on southern Israel on Oct. 7 last year in which 1,200 people were killed and 250 abducted, according to Israeli tallies.

“More than 40,000 Palestinians had been martyred so far including thousands of children. The unarmed Palestinians are still being martyred every day,” Sharif said. “Israel’s Prime Minister [Benjamin] Netanyahu, through his army, has broken the records of barbarism in Palestine.”