IN his address to the 81st session of the United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) on September 25, 2026, Prime Minister of Pakistan Muhammad Shehbaz Sharif once again spoke forcefully and unequivocally about the longstanding Jammu and Kashmir dispute and Pakistan’s continued support for the Kashmiri people. During his address, Prime Minister Sharif declared from the UNGA podium: “From this podium, I assure my Kashmiri brothers and sisters—with fullest authority at my command—that we shall continue to extend our full diplomatic, political and moral support to them till they are granted their inalienable right to self-determination.”
The Kashmir dispute has remained one of the most contentious and dangerous issues between the two nuclear-armed South Asian neighbours, India and Pakistan, for nearly eight decades. Its persistence continues to pose a serious challenge to lasting peace and stability in the region.
Rather than seeking a durable resolution to this longstanding dispute, India, under Prime Minister Narendra Modi, took a major constitutional step on August 5, 2019, when it revoked the special constitutional status previously accorded to Jammu and Kashmir. The move effectively ended the region’s separate constitution and flag, while Article 35A—which had restricted certain property and citizenship rights to permanent residents—was also rendered inoperative. Subsequently, the former state was reorganized into two federally administered Union Territories: Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh.
India’s continued intransigence over the Kashmir dispute cannot be allowed to remain an indefinite obstacle to peace. The issue, given its international dimensions and the commitments embodied in relevant United Nations resolutions, requires serious consideration within the framework of the UN Charter and the applicable UN Security Council resolutions. This raises an important question: should the United Nations, the United States and other major world powers not use their diplomatic influence to encourage a peaceful and internationally supported resolution of the dispute, as the international community did in other cases involving contested territories and peoples’ aspirations for self-determination?
East Timor achieved independence from Indonesia in 1999, while South Sudan became independent from Sudan in 2011, following prolonged international engagement and processes involving the will of their respective peoples. These precedents demonstrate that sustained international diplomacy can play a significant role in addressing seemingly intractable disputes. The international community should, therefore, encourage India and Pakistan to address the Kashmir question in accordance with the relevant UN framework and commitments. Pakistan has consistently maintained that the people of Jammu and Kashmir should be given the opportunity to determine their political future in accordance with the principles of self-determination.
If the United States, the United Nations and the wider international community genuinely aspire to see a “productive and peaceful relationship” between India and Pakistan, the Kashmir dispute cannot simply be left unresolved. A durable peace between the two countries requires addressing the issue in a manner that takes into account the aspirations and fundamental rights of people of Jammu and Kashmir.
Pakistan, for its part, has repeatedly affirmed its support for the Kashmiri people and their right to self-determination. As Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif made clear at the UNGA, Pakistan intends to continue extending diplomatic, political and moral support to the people of Jammu and Kashmir until a peaceful and lasting resolution of the dispute is achieved.
—The writer is contributing columnist, based in Islamabad.
