Pakistan’s first visually impaired CSS officer, Saima Saleem, bashed India on Saturday as she presented the country’s stance over Kashmir during her speech using braille at the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA).
Her speech is also the first to be read by a diplomat of any country using braille at the UNGA meeting.
In her speech, Saima said that India continues to occupy an internationally recognized disputed territory whose disposition needs to be determined by a free and impartial plebiscite to be held by the United Nations (UN), as enshrined in numerous resolutions of the UNGA.
She termed the Indian claims of Pakistan promoting terrorism in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) as ‘baseless’ and added that Indian arguments are typical of all occupiers.
She called upon the international community to take notice of the human rights abuses carried out by Indian armed forces in the IIOJK and hold India accountable for its heinous acts.
Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Munir Akram, also heaped praises over Saima Saleem for her impressive speech read using braille during the UNGA session.
He congratulated Saima for effectively putting forward Pakistan’s viewpoint by using the right of reply exercised in response to claims made by an Indian diplomat.
Saima Saleem became Pakistan’s first visually impaired CSS officer in 2007 as she was allocated to the Foreign Service of Pakistan (FSP) for securing the 6th position in the CSS exams.
She is currently posted as the Second Secretary on Human Rights for Pakistan’s Permanent Mission to the UN.
In her early childhood, Saima was diagnosed with Retinitis Pigmentosa, a genetic disorder of the eyes that causes the loss of vision. As the disease was incurable, she started losing her sight gradually. When Saima turned 13, she lost her vision completely.
Saima has four siblings. Two of them are visually impaired as well. Her brother, Yousaf Saleem, is the first visually impaired judge in the country’s history while her sister, who is also visually impaired, is a lecturer at the University of Lahore.