At UN, Indian and Pakistani delegates spar over Kashmir after Ambassador Akram’s speech

Pakistani and Indian delegates Wednesday engaged in a fresh verbal duel at the United Nations that resulted from an earlier speech by Pakistan’s UN Ambassador Munir Akram in which he called for applying the International Court of Justice’s actions on Palestine to Jammu and Kashmir as well.

Speaking in a UN General Assembly debate on the work of ICJ last Friday, Ambassador Akram said that the World Court’s set of measures on Palestine’s case represented a significant contribution towards the resolution of the conflict, and emphasized that those steps must also be applied to the situation in Indian occupied Kashmir.

“Many peoples, particularly the people of Palestine and occupied Jammu and Kashmir, continue to be subjected to foreign and colonial occupation and denied their right to self-determination,” the Pakistani envoy had said, noting that genocide, war crimes and crimes against humanity are being committed, with impunity, by some rogue States.

On Wednesday, Indian delegate R. Maythili reacted to Ambassador Akram’s sharp comments and accused him of misusing the UN forum. She then claimed that Jammu and Kashmir was an integral part of India, saying that Pakistan was in occupation of a part of that state.

Pakistani delegate Rabia Ijaz hit back at India immediately.

“Jammu and Kashmir is not an integral part of India, it is a disputed territory as is evidenced by all UN Maps and official documents,” she told the 193-member Assembly.

The UN Security Council resolution 47 (1948), the Pakistani delegate said, notes the desire of India and Pakistan that “the question of the accession of Jammu and Kashmir to India or Pakistan should be decided through the democratic method of a free and impartial plebiscite”. That call for a plebiscite was reiterated in several Security Council resolutions.

India, she said, accepted this decision and is bound to comply with it in accordance with Article 25 of the UN Charter. “It cannot be wished away by India through legal acrobatics.”

Terming India’s attempts to deny its illegal occupation of Kashmir as a travesty, Ms.Ijaz said that only an occupier would oppose the implementation of Security Council resolutions that promised self-determination to the people of the disputed territory.

“If India has any respect for international law and moral courage, it would end its reign of terror, withdraw its troops and let the Kashmiris freely decide their future in accordance with Security Council resolutions,” she said.