DESPITE repeated gestures and attempts by Pakistan to normalize relations with India, the other side persists with anti-Pakistan posture and makes unwarranted remarks on the universally acknowledged Kashmir dispute and the issue of terrorism.
Latest is the Indian propaganda vis-à-vis UN resolutions on Jammu and Kashmir, which prompted Foreign Office spokesperson to put the record straight on the subject.
Speaking at the weekly news briefing, the spokesperson rightly pointed out “It was India that took the Jammu and Kashmir issue to the United Nations in 1948.
Today, it has no right to blame the Security Council and its erstwhile members for the resolutions that were subsequently adopted.”
In fact, criticism of the UN resolutions on Kashmir and accusations against the then members of the UN Security Council is an indirect admission on the part of the Indian External Affairs Minister Jaishankar about Kashmir being a disputed territory and continued presence of the issue on the UN agenda.
The spokesperson exposed India’s double standards by asserting that the “repetition of baseless claims” could not deny the fact that Jammu and Kashmir was an internationally recognized disputed territory whose final status was to be determined by its people through a UN-supervised plebiscite, as stipulated in the relevant UNSC resolutions.
India cannot camouflage the reality that it was illegally occupying Jammu and Kashmir as apart from the UN resolutions, there are scores of resolutions and statements by regional and global bodies like OIC that have been demanding peaceful resolution of the conflict in accordance with the aspirations of Kashmiri people.
It may be pointed out that in 2019 about 58 countries and the European Union joined Pakistan in the Human Rights Council reinforcing demands of the international community for India to stop use of force, lift siege, remove other restrictions, respect and protect Kashmiris’ right and resolve Kashmir dispute through UNSC resolutions.
Therefore, Indian claims on Azad Kashmir, propaganda about UN resolutions on Kashmir dispute and unilateral measures to change the disputed nature of the territory cannot fool the international community or pressurize Pakistan not to raise its voice for the just cause of Kashmiris.
As pointed out by the FO spokesperson Pakistan believed in peaceful co-existence but a peaceful settlement of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, under the relevant UNSC resolutions and aspirations of Kashmiris was essential for a lasting peace in South Asia.
