Alwaght- Pakistan Senate Chairman Sadiq Sanjrani canceled his pre-scheduled trip to the United Arab Emirates (UAE) in protest against Abu Dhabi's decision to award its highest civilian honor to Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi despite his government's clampdown in the Muslim-majority Kashmir region
Sources close to the office of Sanjrani told The Express Tribune he had decided to cancel his and a parliamentary delegation's official trip to the Persian Gulf Arab state to indicate Islamabad's apparent objection to decision of UAE's crown prince, Sheikh Mohammed bin Zayed Al Nahyan, to present Modi with the Order of Zayed medal.
Sheikh Mohammed personally put the golden medal around Modi's neck, with a portrait of Sheikh Zayed bin Sultan Al Nahyan, the UAE's first president after whom the order is named, behind them.
The sources further revealed that Chairman Sanjrani felt that his visit to the UAE would send out the wrong message to people in Indian-administered Kashmir when they are in Pakistan's view fighting for their right to self-determination and freedom from Indian government rule.
He was quoted as saying that he had no desire to hurt the sentiments of the Kashmiri people by undertaking a visit to the oil rich Persian Gulf state.
The decades-old spat between India and Pakistan escalated in August after New Delhi revoked the special status of its Muslim-majority state Jammu and Kashmir and split it into two union territories.
Pakistan has condemned the move, expelling the Indian ambassador, halting bilateral trade and promising to raise the issue of the status of the disputed Kashmir region with the International Court of Justice.
