UNITED NATIONS: Citing the unresolved Kashmir dispute, Pakistan has called for the implementation of United Nations Security Council resolutions that provide for the exercise of right of self-determination by the Kashmiri people to usher in peace in South Asia.
“The international community cannot succeed in its efforts to strengthen conflict prevention and promote pacific dispute settlement if the Security Council’s own resolutions are held in abeyance, by some,” Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi, Pakistan’s permanent representative to the UN, said Wednesday in a Council debate on “Mediation and the Settlement of Disputes”.
She said unimplemented resolutions on Kashmir are a question mark on Security Council’s credibility and the objective of durable peace in South Asia.
While the United Nations has had some successes in mediating political settlements, its record is, “at best, checkered,” she said. The long standing Jammu and Kashmir dispute remains on the Council’s agenda, with the 15-member body having provided that “the final disposition of the State of Jammu and Kashmir will be made in accordance with the will of the people expressed through a democratic, free and impartial plebiscite under the auspices of the United Nations.”
“Sadly, these resolutions remain unimplemented to date,” Ambassador Lodhi told delegates.
“What is at stake is both the Council’s credibility as well as the objective of durable peace in our region,” she said, adding: “We must not fail these tests.”
In its bid to resolve the Kashmir dispute, she pointed out that the Security Council also instituted several mechanisms including the UN Commission on India and Pakistan (UNCIP), the deployment of the UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) and the appointment of distinguished Representatives of the United Nations, who consulted the parties and submitted reports on how to resolve the dispute in accordance with provisions of the Security Council resolutions.”
