Daily Times

Pakistan’s re-election to the United Nations Human Rights Council for a fifth time is indeed an “important diplomatic achievement,” according to Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi, especially considering that the country secured 169 votes in the 193 member General Assembly including some of the most influential and important countries in the world. The minister was also right to imply that this result was a “manifestation of the international community’s confidence and trust in Pakistan’s commitment to a progressive national and global human rights agenda.” And since everybody knows that Pakistan has been raising the issue of Kashmir at every possible international forum, including the United Nations, this endorsement also implies an acceptance of the fact that Kashmir will now be a more common topic at the UN than before.

Islamabad, well aware of the paralysis that the Kashmir issue has suffered at the UN, seems to be counting on the fact that since it is Indian refusal to carry out a UN mandated plebiscite in the valley, there’s no harm in reminding everybody at the General Assembly that the world’s largest democracy is in fact an impediment in the world body’s work. New Delhi can now be counted on to mount a pre-emptive diplomatic campaign to discredit Islamabad before it makes too much noise and exposes all its excesses in Kashmir, but now that the ball has got rolling it might find its task a lot more difficult than it might have thought.

Welcome as the re-election by the General Assembly is, it must not make authorities in Pakistan lose sight of the fact that the country still has some ground to cover when it comes to human rights issues at home. And some of the many rights organisations that hound all such UN elections will be sure to mention such things sooner rather than later. Pakistan should ideally leverage this opportunity to improve the human rights situation inside the country as well. When Islamabad stands up for the rights of other oppressed people, the government would look much better if it has already gone the extra mile to sort everything out within its own borders. Not only would that work out very well domestically, it would also add weight to whatever the country says about such issues at important international forums, which is ultimately the best way to lend a hand in Kashmir. *