THE 80th session of the United Nations General Assembly is about to open in New York under the theme “Better together: 80 years and more for peace, development and human rights.”
As the global community gathers under banners of peace and harmony, the reality outside the UN halls paints a grim picture. Gaza remains under siege. Rohingya refugees languish stateless. Kashmir suffers military lockdown. Syria and Lebanon continue to burn. Peace and human rights remain slogans, not realities, in today’s time.
Pakistan arrives at the forum among the nations most scarred by state-sponsored terrorism. For decades, the country has been on the frontline of this scourge, losing over 80,000 lives and bearing economic losses of more than $150 billion. Despite these sacrifices, the menace has not ended. Instead, it continues to mutate, often fueled by external hands that view Pakistan’s stability as a threat to their own agendas. The sharpest edge of this threat comes from the neighbor, India. Successive governments in New Delhi have pursued covert operations designed to weaken Pakistan from within. The Balochistan Liberation Army (BLA) and the Balochistan Liberation Front (BLF) have received direct Indian patronage. Attacks on civilians, security forces, and infrastructure in Balochistan bear the fingerprints of these groups. Investigations and captured operatives, most famously Indian spy Kulbhushan Jadhav, have laid bare the architecture of this proxy war. The challenge is not limited to Balochistan. In Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, the Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP) continues to mount attacks with sanctuaries across the border in Afghanistan. Kabul’s inability, or unwillingness, to rein in the group raises questions about its commitments to regional stability. Each cross-border raid into Pakistan underscores the failure of international mechanisms to address terrorism nurtured on foreign soil.
Beyond South Asia, new and disturbing linkages are emerging. Israel, already backing violent campaigns in the Muslim world, has turned its sinister attention to Pakistan. The establishment of a so-called Balochistan Study Project under the MEMRI think tank reveals an agenda that overlaps with India’s decades-old designs. What began as Indian sponsorship of separatist violence in Pakistan now shows signs of internationalization, with Israel stepping into the playbook.
For Pakistan, this is more than a national security issue. It is a matter of global justice. A country of 240 million people cannot be expected to endlessly absorb the blows of proxy wars waged by hostile states. Pakistan’s counterterrorism campaigns are proof of its determination to defeat militancy.
The UNGA’s 80th session is being celebrated as a milestone for multilateralism, peace, and human rights. But if the forum overlooks the plight of the deprived and victim nations, it risks rendering its theme hollow. The message Pakistan carries to New York is straightforward: peace cannot be built on selective narratives. State-sponsored terrorism is not an abstract concept—it is lived reality for millions of Pakistanis. For true peace, development, and human rights to flourish, the United Nations must acknowledge and act against those who export terror as an instrument of policy.
—The writer is an alumnus of QAU, MPhil scholar & a freelance columnist, based in Islamabad.
