Foreign Minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari has told the OIC Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir that there would be no durable peace in South Asia until the Jammu and Kashmir dispute is resolved based on justice and international legitimacy. While addressing the OIC Contact Group on Jammu and Kashmir on the sidelines of the 77th session of the UN General Assembly in New York, Bilawal said that the Kashmir dispute has remained unresolved primarily due to India’s refusal to implement the resolutions of the UN Security Council (UNSC), which stipulated that the final disposition of the State of Jammu and Kashmir shall be made by the will of the people expressed through the democratic method of a free and impartial plebiscite conducted under the auspices of the United Nations. According to the Foreign Minister, the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, along with the Palestine issue was one of the two longest-standing items on the agenda of the UN and the OIC.
Kashmir is one of the longstanding issues on the agendas of the United Nations and its most effective arm UN Security Council over the past seven decades. The Kashmir issue was initially brought to the UN by the Indian government in early 1948, while Indian leadership accepted the multiple resolutions adopted by the UN Security Council for the resolution of the issue. Initially, the Indian government took some steps in this direction by introducing Article 370 and Section 35 in the Indian Constitution to avert global pressure and buy some time. However, the successive Indian governments did not uphold their commitments made to the global community and Kashmiri people in the past.
The people of Jammu and Kashmir had been waiting over the past seven decades that the United Nations and the global community will honour the resolutions approved by the forum regarding free and fair plebiscite in the valley but the world body failed to implement its decision and demonstrated impotence in reprimanding longstanding abuser if its decision. The BJP led Modi government has exposed the hypocrisy of Indian leaders by revoking Article 370 and Section 35 of the Indian constitution, and undertaking other illegal actions including state-led efforts to change the demography of the disputed region through mass immigration and purchase of property by the Indian citizens in the valley.
The Pakistani delegation has appropriately highlighted the UN’s inability to resolve Kashmir dispute at this important movement, while Prime Minister Shehbaz must raise the Kashmir dispute during his address to the general assembly and should demand the global forum to urgently act on the matter as an entire Kashmiri nation had laid to death, in a hope to exercise their right to vote to get freedom from illegal Indian occupation. Currently, the Modi government has intensified it’s atrocities, and human rights violations, while Indian security agencies have ramped up extra-judicial killings of freedom activists to curb ever-rising Kashmir Freedom Movement. Pakistan should stress the global community to set a timeframe for the implementation of decades-old UN resolutions which now have become inevitable and highly important at this crucial time.
Historically, both staunch rivals are not in talks over the past three years, although Pakistani leaders had expressed willingness for a constructive engagement with India but asked New Delhi to create a conducive environment for a positive dialogue. In fact, such assertions will have no impact on the Modi regime until and unless Pakistan gives a tough time to its opponent on the diplomatic front.
