Pakistan PM Nawaz Sharif appoints 22 MPs as special envoys to highlight plight of Kashmiris

Pakistan Prime Minister Muhammad Nawaz Sharif has nominated 22 parliamentarians as special envoys to highlight the Kashmir issue across the world.

"I have decided to send these parliamentarians for fighting the Kashmir cause in different parts of the world. These special envoys have strength of the people of Pakistan, prayers from the Kashmiri people across the Line of Control, mandate of the parliament and support from the government" Sharif told the Associated Press of Pakistan.

"I am standing behind these special envoys to ensure their toil for highlighting the Kashmir cause resonates across the world so that I can shake the collective conscience of the international community during my address at the UN this September," he told the agency.

According to reports, Sharif emphasised that this anniversary of the UN ought to be a catalyst, spurring the body into action.

"The Kashmir dispute is the most persistent failure of the United Nations; the United Nations must establish its relevance. We cannot relent from the Kashmir cause by any stretch of imagination," the agency quoted Sharif.

According to the report, the parliamentarians who have been nominated as special envoys and lobby for the Kashmir cause in various countries include:

1. Ijazul Haq and Malik Uzair for Brussels
2. Khusro Bakhtiar and Alamdad Laleka for Beijing
3. Raza Hayat Hiraj, Junaid Anwar Chaudhry and Nawab Ali Wassan for the Russian Federation
4. Maulana Fazlur Rehman, Major (retd) Tahir Iqbal and Muhammad Afzal Khokhar for Saudi Arabia
5. Mohsin Shahnawaz Ranjha and Malik Pervaiz for Turkey
6. Lt General (retd) Abdul Qayyum and Qaiser Sheikh for the United Kingdom.
7. Mushahid Hussain Syed and Shazra Mansab Ali Khan for the United States and the United Nations
8. Awais Leghari in the United Nations (Geneva)
9. Abdul Rehman Kanju in South Africa.