UNITED NATIONS: Pakistani and Indian delegates on Monday engaged in a fresh verbal duel at the United Nations (UN) that resulted from last week’s speech by Pakistani Ambassador Munir Akram in which he underscored that Kashmiris and Palestinians were among the people still denied the right to self-determination.
Ambassador Munir Akram had also termed India’s occupation of Jammu and Kashmir as the worst manifestation of modern-day colonialism.
Reacting to the Pakistani ambassador’s comments, Indian delegate Nitish Birdi argued that the United Nations had established the right of self-determination principle as a vehicle for the decolonization of the remaining seventeen Non-Self-Governing Territories and not as a justification for undermining the territorial integrity of any member state.
In this regard, he claimed that the territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh will always remain an integral part of India.
Pakistani delegate hits back
Pakistani delegate Naeem Sabir Khan hit back immediately.
He said that the declaration on the Granting of Independence to Colonial Countries and Peoples reaffirmed the right to self-determination of all people, not just some people.
He said that the right is also enshrined in the first article of the UN Charter, the International Covenant on Civil and Political Rights, and the International Covenant on Economic, Social, and Cultural Rights.
He also said that IIOJK is defined as a disputed territory on UN maps, and it is not an integral part of India.
Sabir Khan, a counselor in the Pakistan Mission to the UN, further said that multiple resolutions of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) define it as a ‘disputed territory’.
Highlighting the Indian State-sponsored terrorism, the Pakistani delegate said it is a franchise that has gone from regional to international level.
Citing an Amnesty International report titled “Weaponizing counter-terrorism,” Sabir Khan said that New Delhi is using money laundering and financial laws to target human rights defenders and civil society.
He said that today, more than two hundred million Muslim, Christian, and other minorities face blatant discrimination in India.
