“Pakistan A Habitual Offender”: India At UN General Assembly

After Pakistan caretaker Prime Minister Anwarul Haq Kakar on Friday raised the issue of “Kashmir as the key to peace between Pakistan and India” in the 78th session of the United Nations General Assembly in New York, India reacted strongly and said Pakistan has no locus standi to comment on the country’s domestic matters.

Petal Gahlot, First Secretary for second committee of General Assembly, said on Saturday as part of Indian delegation’s right to reply, that “Pakistan has become a habitual offender when it comes to misusing this August forum to peddle baseless and malicious propaganda against India”.

“Member states of the United Nations and other multilateral organizations are well aware that Pakistan does so to deflect the international community”s attention away from its own abysmal record on human rights. We reiterate that the union territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh are integral part(s) of India. Matters pertaining to the UTs of J&K and Ladakh are purely internal to India. Pakistan has no locus standi to comment on our domestic matters…,” she added.

Ms Gahlot said Pakistan has been the home and patron to the largest number of internationally prescribed terrorist entities and individuals in the world. “Instead of engaging in technical sophistry, we call upon Pakistan to take credible and verifiable action against the perpetrators of the Mumbai terror attacks whose victims await justice even after 15 years.”

In order there to be peace in South Asia, Ms Gahlot listed three actions Pakistan needs to take: “First, stop cross-border terrorism and shut down its infrastructure of terrorism immediately. Second, vacate Indian territories under its illegal and forcible occupation. And third, stop the grave and persistent human rights violations against the minorities in Pakistan.”

On Friday, the caretaker Prime Minister of Pakistan had said his country desires peaceful and productive relations with all our neighbours including India and added that: “India has evaded implementation of the security council”s resolutions which call for the final disposition of Jammu and Kashmir to be decided by its people through UN-supervised plebiscite. Since August 2019, India has deployed 900,000 troops in illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir to impose the final solution for Kashmir.”