At UNSC, Pakistan asks India to change its behaviour

Rejecting Indian allegations of cross-border terrorism, Pakistan has asked India to change its behaviour, instead of resorting to its “tired narrative of victimhood and blame-shifting” during a UN Security Council debate on ‘Promoting International Peace and Security through Multilateralism and Peaceful Settlement of Disputes’.

“It is India which actively sponsors, aids and abets terrorism in my country and beyond,” Ambassador Usman Jadoon, deputy permanent representative of Pakistan to the UN, told the 15-member body on Tuesday evening, while responding to the allegations made by India’s UN Ambassador Parvathaneni Harish.

“Rather than being blinded by hubris and a misplaced sense of impunity, and instead of resorting to its tired narrative of victimhood and blame-shifting, India must introspect seriously, change its behaviour and comply with its international legal obligations on all counts,” he said in the debate convened by Pakistan to promote pacific settlement of disputes between nations.

Ambassador Jadoon said it was especially regrettable that the Indian Ambassador targeted Pakistan on Tuesday when earlier in the day, the Council spoke with a unanimous voice to reaffirm the purposes and principles of the UN Charter and the imperative of peaceful settlement of disputes, respect for international law and effective implementation of the resolution of the Security Council.

The Indian envoy was reacting to Pakistani Deputy Prime Minister and Foreign Minister Mohammad Ishaq Dar who underscored the need for the resolution of Kashmir dispute in a speech he gave in his national capacity after the adoption of Pakistan-sponsored resolution calling for the peaceful settlement of disputes.

“First of all,” the Pakistani envoy asserted that India was in illegal occupation of the disputed territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

“While claiming to abide by the UN Charter and purportedly the principle of peaceful settlement of disputes, India has been in violation of Security Council resolutions on the Jammu & Kashmir dispute, and has refused to implement those resolutions, thereby denying the Kashmiri people the exercise of their inalienable right to self-determination,” he added.

“India’s egregious violations of human rights – which extend beyond the occupied territory of Jammu and Kashmir – and encompass its appalling treatment of minorities has been widely reported by international human rights organizations,” Ambassador Jadoon pointed out.

He also said that India has stooped to a new low of unilaterally and illegally holding in abeyance the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty – with the stated aim of depriving the people of Pakistan water from the Indus river system.

“In gross violation of international law, India resorted to blatant aggression against my country between 7-10 May, targeting civilians, including women and children,”the Pakistani envoy said, highlighting Pakistan’s “befitting but measured response” in accordance with its right to self-defense, aimed exclusively at military targets resulting in the downing of six Indian aircraft that took part in the act of aggression, among other significant military losses.

“The hostilities came to an end owing to Pakistan’s position of strength and responsible approach, and facilitation of the United States as also highlighted in the statement of the U.S. this morningm], ” Ambassador Jadoon told delegates.

“It is ironic that India, which itself brought the Jammu and Kashmir dispute to the Security Council, refuses to implement the resolutions adopted by the Council to peacefully resolve this dispute,” the Pakistani envoy remarked.

Obviously stung by the success of Pakistan’s signature event at the Council, the Indian envoy had claimed that Pakistan was “steeped in fanaticism and terrorism, and a serial borrower from the IMF.”

Mentioning the recent terror attack in Jammu and Kashmir’s Pahalgam city and India’s response to it in the form of Operation Sindoor, he said that “there should be a serious cost” for states that violate the spirit of good neighbourliness by “fomenting cross-border terrorism.”