SOURCE: Tribune News Service
India has hit back at Pakistan a day before the first anniversary of the changes in the status of Jammu and Kashmir. The immediate context for the broadside launched by India’s permanent representative to the UN, TS Tirumurti, was Pakistan’s failure to persuade the UN Security Council (UNSC) to come out with a resolution on Kashmir.
Pakistan had stepped up its campaign against the August 5 abrogation of Articles 370 and 35 A, with Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi persuading China to hold a closed-door meeting on Kashmir at the UNSC. Qureshi later marked the consultations as a political victory for the Imran Khan government since this was the second time in six months that the UNSC had discussed Kashmir.
Tirumurti said Pakistan’s latest attempt had also fallen flat.
“Attempts by Pakistan to try and internationalise what is a bilateral issue is nothing new. Contrary to what Qureshi has asserted, there has been no formal meeting of the UNSC on the India-Pakistan issue since 1965.”
“What came up recently was a closed-door and completely informal meeting under the category of ‘any other business’, which is not even a recorded discussion,” Tirumurti pointed out.
“Even the UN Secretary-General, in his statement of August 2019, clearly referred to the 1972 bilateral Shimla Agreement. Consequently, Pakistan’s efforts haven’t met any traction in UNSC. Even if Pakistan persists, there are no takers here in the UN,” Tirumurti added.
“It is a well-known fact that Pakistan is home to the largest number of listed terrorists, internationally designated terrorist entities and individuals. Under the 1267 Committee, which submits its report periodically on terrorist activities of the ISIL, the Al-Qaeda and its affiliates. There are several direct references to Pakistan’s involvement,” pointed out the diplomat.
India will join the UNSC for a two-year membership from January 1, 2021, for the eighth time.
Qureshi has also opposed India’s quest for permanent membership at the UNSC by stating that expansion will “compound, not resolve, UNSC’s paralysis”.
