Pakistan has called on the United Nations to step up its efforts and urgently resolve the Kashmir dispute in a bid to halt Indian atrocities and dispel a threat to regional and global peace and security.
“Peace and security must remain at the core of the functions of the United Nations,” Ambassador Munir Akram told the UN General Assembly on Friday while commenting on UN Secretary General Antonio Guterres' report on the organisation's work.
“We urge the Security Council and the Secretary-General to exercise their considerable authority to promote an early and peaceful resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute and to end the Indian reign of terror against the Kashmiri people”, the Pakistan envoy said in his speech.
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The UN and the secretary-general, he said, can do “much more” to address peace and security threats by fully using the authority provided by the United Nations Charter, such as in Article 99, and by taking action in the General Assembly if the Security Council is unable to do so.
The "primary threat" in South Asia, the Pakistan envoy said, was posed by the Kashmir dispute and India's attempt to annex and transform the Muslim-majority state into a Hindu majority territory, in grave violation of UNSC resolutions that promised Kashmiris their right to self-determination through a UN-supervised plebiscite.
Detailing extensive illegal actions taken by India, which he condemned, Ambassador Akram urged the Council and the Secretary-General to promote an early, peaceful end to the dispute.
He cited the rise of racial and religious hate and violence, with Islamophobia among its gravest manifestations, notably as characterised by lynching and calls for genocide of Muslims in India.
“The worst manifestation of Islamophobia is the officially-inspired campaign of Hindutva adherents in India against Muslims,” he said.
So far, the Pakistan envoy noted, there had been no accountability for India’s crimes. "Draconian Indian laws provide complete impunity to the 900,000 troops India had deployed the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir’s (IIOJK).
Ambassador Akram also drew attention to the statement made recently by the Head of “Genocide Watch”, Professor Gregory Stanton, in which he stated: “We are warning that genocide could very well happen in India.”
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“We call on the Secretary-General and the United Nations to take decisive steps to combat Islamophobia and to prevent the danger of genocide against the Muslims of India.”
At the outset of his address, the Pakistan envoy welcomed the UN's mobilisation of humanitarian and other assistance for Afghanistan, calling its flash appeal for aid to Afghanistan in September last year and the $5 billion appeal made earlier this month timely and essential.
"Similarly, the United Nations role in peacekeeping is a major success and Pakistan will remain a steadfast partner in ensuring the effectiveness of such operations, notably the United Nations Military Observer Group for India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP), stationed in the disputed Jammu and Kashmir region," he said.
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