Pakistan calls for concrete steps to alleviate Kashmiris' suffering

NEW YORK: Pakistan has urged the international community to take concrete and meaningful action to alleviate the suffering of Kashmiri people under the Indian occupation. 

“As a party to the Kashmir dispute, this is the UN’s long-standing obligation,” Maleeha Lodhi, permanent representative of Pakistan to the UN, told the UN General Assembly.

Speaking in the debate on the Report of the Secretary General on the work of the Organization, she said the Jammu and Kashmir dispute remains one of the oldest items on the Security Council agenda, noting that relevant, yet unimplemented resolutions grant Kashmiris the right to self-determination.”Regrettably”, she added, “these resolutions remain unimplemented”.

Pakistan seeks a negotiated solution to the dispute, Ambassador Lodhi said, pointing out that India does not.

She reminded the 193-member Assembly that the Jammu and Kashmir dispute was one of the earliest applications of Chapter VI of the United Nations, which deals with pacific settlements of disputes.

Ms Lodhi also referred to the June 14 report of the UN High Commissioner for Human Rights, which she said documented in detail the systematic violations of fundamental rights of the Kashmiri people.

She said the Indian occupation continues to commit, with impunity, gross violations of the fundamental human rights of the Kashmiri people.