Pakistan wants the UNSC to enforce its Jammu and Kashmir resolutions.
In August 2019, Modi’s BJP repealed Article 370 of the Indian constitution, removing occupied Kashmir’s unique status. The Supreme Court upheld that order in December 2023.
The IoK legislative assembly demanded special status after the November elections, but Modi refused.
After the Indian army chief called Pakistan the “epicentre of terrorism” in January, the military clashed.
The Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) and Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Tariq Fatemi told a high-level UNSC meeting on Monday that the council must ensure self-determination “for the Kashmiri people, and promote a just and lasting settlement of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute by taking measures to implement its own resolutions”.
A press release by the Pakistan Mission to the UN reminded that the Jammu and Kashmir dispute remains on the UNSC agenda and awaits a just and final settlement in accordance with Security Council resolutions that promised the Kashmiri people the right to self-determination through a UN-supervised plebiscite.
At the UNSC high-level open debate on ‘Maintenance of International Peace and Security: Advancing Adaptability in UN Peace Operations — Responding to New Realities’, Fatemi said this, according to the Associated Press of Pakistan.
Pakistan stressed that the Council must ensure the Kashmiri people’s right to that right and support a reasonable and sustainable settlement of the dispute by implementing its own resolutions.
The 1949 UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan exemplified the observation and monitoring type of operations for inter-state conflicts, [Fatemi] said, emphasizing the cost-effectiveness of UN peacekeeping operations.
Fatemi stated that peacekeeping operations, initially designed for interstate conflicts, are being used in intrastate and civil battles.
According to the SAPM, Pakistan is one of the longest-serving and largest troop contributors to UN peacekeeping operations and a founding member of the Peacebuilding Commission.
Pakistan has sent 235,000 peacekeepers to 48 Missions worldwide.
In the statement, he said: “181 Pakistani peacekeepers have died for international peace and security. More than 3,267 Pakistani men and women proudly serve in 7 Missions in blue helmets.”
According to Fatemi, peace operations today face “new realities” and obstacles molded by diverse objectives and priorities due to geopolitical rivalries, lack of political will, and insufficient resource allocation.
Increasing non-state actors, shifting conflicts, and weaponizing emerging technology and the information domain are also problems for peace operations.
The SAPM also advocated for UN peacekeeping to be more dynamic and adaptable to modern challenges:
Strengthening UN Member States’ political commitment, especially the Security Council, to prevent power vacuums for bad actors.
Peacekeeping missions need realistic, situation-specific directives.
Priority of political solutions, ensuring peacekeeping operations complement political goals.
Financial resources to meet expanding operational needs.
Training, gear, and resources for new dangers.
Well-planned mission withdrawals safeguard civilians and ensure stability.
Initial peacebuilding efforts in peacekeeping operations for long-term stability.
Constructive dialogue with troop-contributing nations on UN peace operations.
The UNSC has not mandated a new peacekeeping operation in almost a decade, despite the evident need, and Fatemi urged the Council to use this important tool to maintain peace in war zones.
Pakistan will host the UN Peacekeeping Ministerial preparatory meeting in Islamabad next month, whose results will inform UN Peace Operations’ future.
In the same month, the FO called India’s foreign minister’s recent calls for AJK’s annexation “baseless claims” and demanded that India leave.
Pakistan’s Foreign Office criticized India’s designation of two Kashmiri organizations as “unlawful associations” earlier this month.
According to The Hindu, India’s home ministry declared the Jammu and Kashmir Awami Action Committee, led by Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, and the Ittihadul Muslimeen, led by Maulana Mohammad Abbas Ansari, “unlawful association” for five years.
Kashmir is not India’s ‘integral part’, Pakistan warns UN.
The UN and international world recognize occupied Kashmir as a disputed state, hence Pakistan rejects India’s claim that it is a “integral part,” APP stated.
Pakistani representative Gul Qaiser Sarvani informed the UN Security Council during its high-level peacekeeping meeting that “Every official UN map depicts Jammu and Kashmir as a disputed territory.”
Counsellor Sarwani of the Pakistan Mission to the UN responded to Indian Ambassador Parvathaneni Harish’s remark that “Kashmir has been, is, and will always be an integral and inalienable part of India”.
Fatemi eagerly urged the 15-member UNSC to follow its own resolutions granting Kashmiris the right to self-determination through a UN-supervised vote, to which the Indian ambassador responded.
Sarwani replied, “No amount of obfuscation can change the legal, political and historical reality—Jammu and Kashmir is not, and has never been, a ‘integral’ part of India.
This is a disputed territory whose ‘final disposition’ is to be decided by the people of Jammu and Kashmir in a UN-supervised plebiscite, as mandated by many Security Council resolutions.
He claimed that India has killed over 100,000 innocent Kashmiris since 1989 with over 900,000 troops and paramilitary personnel.
“It (India) has imposed the densest occupation in history, with one Indian soldier for every eight Kashmiri men, women, and children,” the Pakistani delegate said, adding that the UN has documented India’s grave human rights crimes.
Sarwani said, “It is most ironic that India, which is committing the worst form of state terrorism in occupied Jammu and Kashmir, is portraying itself as the victim,” adding that all occupiers and colonisers have tried to portray legitimate struggles for freedom and liberation as terrorism.
India should examine its own strategy of targeted assassinations, subversion, and terrorism abroad before condemning others.
India funds terrorism against Pakistan through the proscribed Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Baloch Liberation Army (BLA), and Majeed Brigade.
