The Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan has attracted attention at various multilateral forums, including the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC), and has become an intrinsic feature in Pakistan’s diplomacy to muster support against India in the Islamic world. Pakistan has consistently highlighted the human rights violations by India in Kashmir at international forums which dismay India many times.

On Aug. 5, 2019, India unilaterally ended the special states of Kashmir and revoked the Article 370 and 35A. The illegal and ill-thought steps by India have created an opportunity to expose across the globe including among Islamic world.

In September, 2019 in the annual session of UNGA, the OIC Contact Group on Kashmir convened a special session on Kashmir on the sidelines of the United Nations General Assembly session in New York and a report was circulated by its Independent Permanent Human Rights Commission on the situation in India-administered Kashmir.

In December 2019, the head of the Saudi Shura Council (SSC) put forward a proposal to Pakistan for holding a conference of speakers of parliaments from Muslim countries to discuss the issue of Jammu and Kashmir. But Pakistan turned down the proposal of Saudi Arabia without explanation. Rather Pakistan had suggested a special session of Council of Foreign Ministers (CFM), a Meeting of senior OIC officials held on Feb. 9 to make preparations for the Council of Foreign Ministers but not convened till April.

Dr. Mohammed Al-Sulami who led the Riyadh based International Institute for Iranian Studies (Rasanah) was of the opinion that If that meeting happens the speakers from across the Muslim world could have forged support for Kashmir at the wider level.

The Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) has held three meetings on Kashmir since August 2019 — two of them at the foreign ministers’ level — and produced strong statements in support of the Kashmiri cause.

The OIC has also established a special committee to assist the families of Kashmiri martyrs, which meets regularly in Jeddah. Pakistan’s permanent representative to the OIC, Razwan Sheikh, attended the committee’s most recent session, on July 13, as guests of honor. On the occasion, he himself lauded the Kashmir committee as an effective and active body for advocating and defending the Kashmiri cause.

The fact is that India often benefited from the fault-lines within the Islamic world and defended its position on Kashmir. One of the reasons is that some Muslim states share strong bilateral relations with India, and the Kashmir issue does not enjoy the same level of support among them as Pakistan expects. Even Bangladesh a leading Muslim country proposed that states like India, which have significant Muslim populations, should become members of the organization in 2018.

As Pakistan reiterates its belief in the necessity of resolving differences through dialogue and peaceful means, Riyadh’s and Islamabad’s hopes and visions for settling this dispute are identical. All comments of the kingdom’s leadership and government show support for Pakistan’s position and demands that the United Nations resolutions on Kashmir be implemented.

According to analysts despite these varying views existing within the 57 states OIC, given the dynamics of the issue where interests of the Muslim world are involved and its prominence in Pakistan’s foreign policy, Kashmir is likely to remain part of the OIC discourse requiring a more informed approach by Pakistan.

The writer is a Islamabad based journalist, analyst security & diplomatic affairs

Twitter: @arifqoreshi