A Pakistani delegate has debunked India’s claim that Pakistan was failing to safeguard the rights of its religious minorities, calling the accusation “a textbook case of the perpetrator posturing as a victim”.
“A state that has weaponized hate, normalized mob violence, and codified discrimination against its own citizens – and against those it occupies – has no moral standing to speak on the Responsibility to Protect (R2P),” Rabia Ijaz, a second secretary in the Pakistan Mission to the UN, said about India in the UN General Assembly on Wednesday.
The 193-member Assembly held a debate on R2P, a concept aimed at preventing and responding to atrocity crimes, during which Pakistan’s Deputy Permanent Representative, Ambassador Usman Jadoon, said that the doctrine had become “meaningless” following the international community’s failure to stop the mass killing of civilians in occupied Palestine and Kashmir.
Reacting to Ambassador Jadoon’s sharp statement, a representative of India accused Pakistan of violating the rights of its minorities, and of its involvement in the recent attack in Pahalgam, Indian occupied Kashmir, as well as claiming that the Himalayan state was its integral part.
Excercizing her right of reply, Ms. Ijaz, the Pakistani delegate, said, “Under the (ruling) BJP-RSS regime, India has descended into a majoritarian autocracy where all minorities – Muslims, Christians, and Dalits live under siege.
“Lynching is met with silence. Bulldozers become tools of collective punishment. Mosques are razed. Citizenship is denied based on religion. This is not the protection of people – this is their persecution, sanctified by law and celebrated by power.”
On Jammu and Kashmir, she said India’s claim of it being an “integral part” or an “internal matter” was pure political and legal fiction.
“Jammu and Kashmir never was nor is an integral part of India,” the Pakistani delegate said, noting that the UN recognizes it as a disputed territory. Numerous Security Council Resolutions, along with those of the UN Commission for India and Pakistan, reaffirm the right of the Kashmiri people to determine their own future through a free and impartial plebiscite.
“India not only accepted these obligations – it is bound by Article 25 of the UN Charter to comply. Its refusal to do so constitutes a continuing violation of international law,” Ms. Ijaz said.
She went in to say that India recently launched an unprovoked and deliberate attack on civilian areas in Pakistan, martyring 35 innocent people.
About India’s sponsorship of terrorism, the Pakistani delegate said that from the 2014 Army Public School massacre to the recent school bus attack in Khuzdar, the fingerprints of Indian intelligence agencies are evident. “Through its support to TTP and BLA, India continues to wage covert war against Pakistan.”
In conclusion, she said, “R2P cannot become a slogan for serial violators to hide behind. It cannot be invoked by those who deny rights at home and export chaos abroad. If the international community is serious about protection, then it must first protect vulnerable populations from the very states that are the perpetrators, including India.”
Haiti
Voicing deep concern over the escalating gang violence in Haiti, Pakistan has called on the UN Security Council to act “decisively, collectively, and now” to restore the Caribbean country’s political stability.
“The time for half-measures is over,” Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, permanent representative of Pakistan to the UN, told the 15-member Council, as he urged support for the Haitian state to reclaim its authority from gangs’ strangleholds.
Speaking during a briefing on strife-torn Haiti, he said, “The gangs’ stranglehold has turned Haiti’s streets into battlegrounds; vigilante killings are on the rise, children are being recruited by armed groups, and the economic collapse and breakdown of basic services subjecting hundreds of thousands of Haitians to live in fear and face acute food shortages.”
Wednesday’s formal Council meeting was the first under Pakistan’s presidency for the month of July.
Ambassador Asim Iftikhar, who presided over the Security Council meeting, spoke in his national capacity.
Pakistan, he said, remains deeply concerned by Haiti’s rapid slide into chaos – marked by rampant gang violence, unchecked vigilantism, and a worsening humanitarian situation.
“Haiti’s stability also requires political unity and responsible leadership, that promotes national consensus and charts a common path to recovery within the imperative of a Haitian-led and-owned process.” the Pakistani envoy said.
Ambassador Asim Iftikhar expressed support for the commitment of Kenya and the other troop-contributing countries to the Multinational Security Support (MSS) mission, and called on the Security Council to ensure that the mission is robust, well-resourced, and effective – while also helping build Haiti’s police, justice, and governance capacity for the long term.
“Anything less risks collective failure tomorrow,” he added.
“The people of Haiti deserve to live in peace and dignity, free from fear and want,” the Pakistani envoy said, stressing that collective, courageous, and timely action is needed now.
“Pakistan stands ready to play its part in forging consensus within the Council … to help deliver security and hope to the people of Haiti.”
At the outset, Miroslav Jenca, Assistant Secretary-General for Europe, Central Asia and Americas, Departments of Political and Peacebuilding Affairs and Peace Operations, noted a “sharp erosion of State authority and the rule of law” since his visit in January, with “brutal gang violence” affecting every aspect of public and private life.
The capital, Port-au-Prince, was paralyzed by gangs and isolated by ongoing suspension of international commercial flights into Toussaint-Louverture airport, he said. Since then, gangs have only strengthened their foothold, which now affects all communes of the Port-au-Prince metropolitan area and beyond.
He called on the international community to act decisively and urgently or the “total collapse of state presence in the capital could become a very real scenario”.
Ghada Fathi Waly, Executive Director of the UN Office on Drugs and Crime (UNODC), echoed that warning.
“As gang control expands, the state’s capacity to govern is rapidly shrinking, with social, economic and security implications,” she told the Council, briefing remotely from Vienna.
“This erosion of state legitimacy has cascading effects,” Ms.Waly said, with legal commerce becoming paralyzed as gangs control major trade routes, such conditions worsening “already dire levels of food insecurity and humanitarian need.