Geneva (TDI): Health Minister Mustafa Kamal has called for holding India accountable for threatening to halt the flow of Indus River waters, warning such an action would jeopardize the health of over 240 million Pakistani people.
“Weaponizing water and targeting civilian health infrastructure by New Delhi are serious violations of international law,” he told the World Health Assembly-78, a body of the World Health Organization (WHO), which is meeting in Geneva.
Kamal said that Indian strikes also damaged a government dispensary during the recent tensions, disrupting front-line care for vulnerable populations.
India carried out unprovoked attacks on Pakistan on the night of May 6-7, damaging several infrastructures and martyring over 50 innocent civilians and security personnel.
The health minister also emphasized Pakistan’s firm commitment to the global health agenda of WHO and said that it was the foremost priority of the government to eradicate polio.
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He underscored the progress on reduced preventable maternal and child mortality; enhanced immunization and effective responses to infectious diseases like malaria, dengue, HIV and hepatitis.
India reacted to Kamal’s statement, repeating its usual string of baseless allegations against Pakistan.
Danyal Hasnain, a Second Secretary at the Pakistani Mission to the United Nations (UN) in Geneva, hit back at New Delhi, cautioning: “As a lower riparian country, unrestricted access to water is an issue of survival for Pakistan and history has proven that whenever provoked, we always defended our country and will do it again, with full force.”
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He said that the whole world recently witnessed how Indian reckless adventurism and dangerous military action put at risk the peace and security in South Aisa.
Fueled by its misplaced notions of superiority, Modi regime once again proved that it is one of the most persistent violators of international law, he added.
