The venue for Commonwealth Parliamentary Union meeting was on Thursday shifted to New York after Pakistan announced that it will not host the meet due to tensions with India as the latter was adamant on sending the Jammu and Kashmir Assembly Speaker Kavinder Gupta.
Pakistan's National Assembly Speaker Ayaz Sadiq announced that Islamabad pulled out as the host for the 61st Commonwealth Parliamentary Conference (CPC) as India insisted on the participation of J&K Assembly speaker.
Sadiq told the media that "inviting Jammu Kashmir at the conference was a violation of the UN Security Council's resolutions and international laws", the Daily Times reported.
Earlier, India had threatened to boycott the nine-day CPC that was to be held in Islamabad from 30 September after Pakistan refused to invite Jammu and Kashmir Assembly speaker for the meet.
The international conference brings together "parliamentarians and their staff [from Commonwealth nations] to identify benchmarks of good governance". This year 53 countries and 550 delegates had confirmed their participation.
Ayaz told the local media that India was trying to damage the reputation of Pakistan through "false propaganda".
"We have clarified to the London Secretariat of the Commonwealth that Kashmir is a disputed territory and now it is impossible for the Commonwealth Conference to be held in Pakistan," Ayaz Sadiq told reporters.
He said the Kashmir issue could not be overlooked at any cost and the assembly speaker would not be invited. "The decision to hold the event in Pakistan was made on the basis that the Kashmir assembly speaker would not be invited to the Conference," he said.
