Daily Times

UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan has told the United Nations that its decolonization agenda will remain incomplete without settling the Kashmir dispute in the light of Security Council resolutions that pledged the right of self-determination to the Kashmiri people.

“Unless this pledge (to the Kashmiris) is kept, this will continue to represent the most persistent failure of the United Nations,” Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi said in a speech to the General Assembly’s Special Political and Decolonization (Fourth) Committee.

India, she said, had deployed hundreds of thousands of troops in the occupied Kashmir, unleashing a reign of terror along with employing the most brutal violence to deny the Kashmiris their right to self-determination. Human rights violations in Indian-held Kashmir have now been documented in the report of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights as well, she pointed out. “The right of the Kashmiri people to self-determination has been recognized and promised to them by the UN Security Council, and by both India and Pakistan,” she said. “But they still wait for the fulfillment of the promise of holding a UN-supervised plebiscite to enable them to determine their political destiny,” she added.

In this regard, the Pakistani envoy emphasized the need for determining the future of Jammu and Kashmir in accordance with United Nations Security Council resolutions. “This is the demand of law, morality and the dictate of the fundamental right to self-determination,” she said. In the Middle East, she added, the lasting peace will continue to elude the region until the Palestinian people are allowed to exercise their right to self-determination.

Underlining the significance of the work of the Committee, Lodhi said that political and socio-economic progress of people is imperilled and retarded under foreign occupation and alien domination.

“More than one generation has not had the opportunity to experience and enjoy the freedom that we all take for granted,” she said. “The desperation and hopelessness of people living under alien or colonial subjugation doesn’t just deserve our attention and empathy, it should also be a call for action,” she added.

“Concerted effort is required for uniform and non-discriminatory implementation of the relevant UN Resolutions,” the envoy said. “Selective application only erodes the confidence of the international community, undermines the credibility of the UN system, and encourages a culture of impunity,” she said. “Law must prevail over arbitrary powers. And Right must prevail over Might,” she added.

Published in Daily Times, October 17^th 2018.