Pakistan has urged the UN Security Council (UNSC) to fulfil its responsibility by ensuring the implementation of its own resolutions on the Jammu and Kashmir dispute.

In August 2019, Modi’s ruling Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) had revoked occupied Kashmir’s special status by repealing Article 370 of the Indian constitution. The country’s Supreme Court had upheld that order in December 2023.

Soon after the elections in November last year, the legislative assembly of IoK had called for the restoration of the region’s special status but Modi rejected that demand.

The two countries saw a heated exchange in January this year as the military strongly reacted to the Indian army chief calling Pakistan the “epicentre of terrorism”.

Special Assistant to the Prime Minister (SAPM) and Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Tariq Fatemi told a high-level UNSC meeting on Monday that it was the council’s responsibility to ensure the right to self-determination “for the Kashmiri people, and promote a just and lasting settlement of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute by taking measures to implement its own resolutions”.

Pakistan reminded that the Jammu and Kashmir dispute remains on the agenda of the UNSC and awaits a just and final settlement in accordance with the relevant resolutions of the Security Council that promised the Kashmiri people the right to self-determination through a UN-supervised plebiscite, a press release by the Pakistan Mission to the UN said.

According to the Associated Press of Pakistan, Fatemi made these remarks while speaking at the UNSC high-level open debate on the ‘Maintenance of International Peace and Security: Advancing Adaptability in UN Peace Operations — Responding to New Realities’.

The UNSC statement continued, “Pakistan emphasised that it was the responsibility of the Council to ensure the realisation of that right for the Kashmiri people, and promote a just and lasting settlement of the dispute by taking measures to implement its own resolutions.

“Highlighting the importance of the UN peacekeeping operations as being cost-effective instruments to maintain international peace and security, [Fatemi] mentioned that the UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan, established in 1949, exemplified the observation and monitoring type of operations for inter-state conflicts.”

Fatemi was quoted as having said that originally conceived for inter-state conflicts, peacekeeping operations have since also been applied in intra-state conflicts and civil wars.

The SAPM mentioned Pakistan’s long association with UN peacekeeping operations in terms of being one of the longest-serving and leading troop contributors and a founding member of the Peacebuilding Commission.

He underscored that over the years, Pakistan has deployed 235,000 peacekeepers in 48 Missions across the globe.

The statement quoted him as saying: “[A total of] 181 Pakistani peacekeepers have paid the ultimate sacrifice in the service of international peace and security. More than 3,267 Pakistani men and women are proudly serving in blue helmets in 7 Missions today.”

Fatemi also highlighted the “new realities” and challenges facing peace operations today, which, he said, are being increasingly shaped by divergent objectives and priorities resulting from increased geo-political rivalries, lack of political will and insufficient allocation of resources.

He added that the proliferation of non-state actors, the changing nature of conflicts; and the weaponisation of new technologies and the information space were also challenges facing peace operations today.

The SAPM also shared Pakistan’s suggestions to make UN peacekeeping more dynamic and capable of responding to contemporary challenges:

• Stronger political commitment from UN Member States, particularly the Security Council, to prevent negative actors from exploiting power vacuums.
• Clear, realistic, and situation-specific mandates for peacekeeping missions.
• Primacy of political solutions, ensuring peacekeeping operations support well-defined political objectives.
• Adequate financial resources to match growing operational demands.
• Modern training, equipment, and resources to counter emerging threats.
• Well-planned mission transitions and withdrawals, ensuring stability and civilian protection.
• Early peacebuilding initiatives within peacekeeping operations to foster long-term stability.
• Meaningful consultations with troop-contributing countries in shaping the future of UN peace operations.

Fatemi noted that the UNSC did not mandate any new peacekeeping operation in over a decade despite the apparent need, and urged the Council to not shy away from utilizing this significant tool for the maintenance of peace in conflict zones.

He said that Pakistan is closely engaged at the policy and conceptual level in responding to the evolution of UN Peacekeeping, adding that it will be hosting the UN Peacekeeping Ministerial preparatory meeting in Islamabad next month, whose outcomes would feed into the ongoing deliberations on the future of UN Peace Operations.

Earlier in the month, the FO had also rejected recent remarks made by India’s foreign minister on Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) as “baseless claims” while asking his country to vacate occupied areas of the region.

Pakistan also denounced Indian authorities’ decision to declare two organisations of India-occupied Kashmir as “unlawful associations”, according to a Foreign Office statement issued earlier this month.

According to The Hindu, India’s home ministry had declared the Jammu and Kashmir Awami Action Committee, headed by Kashmiri chief cleric and Hurriyat leader Mirwaiz Umar Farooq, and the Jammu and Kashmir Ittihadul Muslimeen, headed by Maulana Mohammad Abbas Ansari, as “unlawful association” for the next five years.

Kashmir is not India’s ‘integral part’, Pakistan tells UN

Pakistan has also brushed aside India’s claim of occupied Kashmir being its “integral part”, saying the disputed status of the Himalayan state is acknowledged by the UN and the international community, APP reported.

“Every official UN map depicts Jammu and Kashmir as a disputed territory,” Pakistani delegate Gul Qaiser Sarvani told the UN Security Council as its high-level discussion on UN peacekeeping operations came to an end.

Sarwani, who is a counsellor at the Pakistan Mission to the UN, was reacting to Indian Ambassador Parvathaneni Harish’s claim that “Kashmir has been, is, and will always be an integral and inalienable part of India”.

The Indian ambassador made that claim in response to Fatemi, who made an earnest call on the 15-member UNSC to implement its own resolutions promising the Kashmiri people the right to self-determination through a UN-supervised plebiscite.

Exercising his right of reply, Sarwani said, “No amount of obfuscation can change the legal, political and historical reality — Jammu and Kashmir is not, and has never been a so-called ‘integral’ part of India.

“It is a disputed territory, whose ‘final disposition’ is to be decided by the people of Jammu and Kashmir through a UN-supervised plebiscite, as demanded by numerous resolutions of the Security Council.”

Pointing out that India holds Kashmir by brute force with over 900,000 troops and paramilitary forces, he said that India has killed over 100,000 innocent Kashmiris since 1989.

“It (India) has imposed the densest occupation in history, with one Indian soldier for every eight Kashmiri men, women and children,” the Pakistani delegate said, adding that the UN has duly recorded India’s gross violations of human rights in occupied territory.

With regards to the Indian envoy’s allegation of cross-border terrorism, Sarwani said, “It is most ironic that India, which is committing the worst form of state terrorism in occupied Jammu and Kashmir, is portraying itself as the victim,” adding, that this was a familiar ploy of all occupiers and colonisers to paint legitimate struggles for freedom and liberation as terrorism.

Instead of maligning others for terrorism, he added, India should sincerely reflect on its own campaign of orchestrating targeted assassinations, subversion and terrorism in foreign countries, he added.

“It is India which supports and finances terrorism against Pakistan through [the banned] Tehreek-i-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) and the Majeed Brigade.”