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Pakistan to take Kashmir dispute with India to World Court

Pakistan will take its Kashmir dispute with India to the United Nations' top judicial body, the International Court of Justice (ICJ), Pakistan's foreign minister announced Tuesday. "An in-principle decision has been taken to take the issue of disputed Kashmir to the International Court of Justice," Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi was quoted as saying by local media.

Reuters WORLD
Published August 20,2019
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Pakistani FM Shah Mehmood Qureshi (L) gives a press conference at the Foreign Ministry in Islamabad. [AFP Photo]

Pakistan said on Tuesday it would take its dispute with India over Kashmir to the International Court of Justice, after New Delhi revoked the special status of its part of the region earlier this month.

Islamabad reacted with fury to that decision, cutting trade and transport links and expelling India's ambassador.

"We have decided to take the Kashmir case to the International Court of Justice," Pakistan's foreign minister, Shah Mehmood Qureshi, told ARY News TV on Tuesday. "The decision was taken after considering all legal aspects."

The case would centre on alleged human rights violations by India in Muslim-majority Kashmir, which both countries claim in full but rule in part, Qureshi said.

A decision by the court would advisory only. However, if both countries agreed before-hand, the ruling would become binding.

A spokesman for India's foreign ministry did not immediately respond to a request for comment. India denies committing human rights violations in Kashmir.