Pakistan has exposed the real face of India—spearheaded by fascist Prime Minister Narendra Modi—yet again, by highlighting the ongoing human rights violations and brutalities on Kashmiris by the Indian security forces in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) and called for resolving the lingering nuclear flashpoint in accordance with the UN Security Council resolutions through a free a free and impartial plebiscite under the UN auspices and according to the wishes of the Kashmiri people.
Pakistan has also drawn the immediate attention of the international community towards Afghanistan following rapid developments which took place there recently with the Taliban coming in power and US-led NATO forces leaving after 20 years without achieving the set objectives and suffering heavy losses; a huge humanitarian crisis is looming ahead.
All this and even much more was stated by no less than Prime Minister Imran Khan while delivering another virtual address to the United National General Assembly (UNGA) from Islamabad. This was the Prime Minister’s third address to the UNGA, the first one was in 2019 for which he had gone to New York and availed the opportunity of meeting a number of world leaders. Due to the pandemic, he skipped the visit to New York last year and virtually addressed the UNGA for the second time from Islamabad.
The Prime Minister emphatically stated that Pakistan desires peace with India as with all its neighbours but sustainable peace in South Asia is only contingent upon the resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in accordance with the relevant UN Security Council resolutions but the onus remains on India for creating a conducive environment for meaningful and result-oriented engagement with Pakistan. For this, the PM asked India to reverse the unilateral and illegal measures instituted since August 5, 2019; stop its oppression and human rights violations against the people of Kashmir, and halt and reverse the demographic changes in the occupied territory by turning the Muslim majority into a minority for achieving its ulterior objectives.
He regretfully pointed out that New Delhi, governed by the fascist RSS-BJP regime, has embarked on what it ominously called the “final solution” for the Jammu and Kashmir dispute by taking a series of illegal and unilateral measures in Occupied Jammu and Kashmir since August 5, 2019; unleashing a reign of terror by an occupation force of 900000; putting the senior Kashmiri leadership behind bars; imposing a complete clampdown on the media and internet; violently suppressing peaceful protests; abducting 13000 young Kashmiris and torturing hundreds of them; the extra-judicial killing hundreds of innocent Kashmiris in fake encounters, and imposing collective punishments by destroying entire neighbourhoods and villages.
All these Indian actions violated the UN Security Council resolutions on Jammu and Kashmir which, as pointed out by Imran Khan, clearly prescribed that the “final disposition” of the disputed territory should be decided by its people, through a free and impartial plebiscite held under UN auspices. Needless to point out that India’s actions in Occupied Jammu and Kashmir also violated International Human Rights and Humanitarian Laws including the 4th Geneva Convention and amounted to war crimes and crimes against humanity. It is essential that another conflict between India and Pakistan is prevented. Expressing grave concern, the PM said that India’s military build-up, development of advanced nuclear weapons as well as acquisition of destabilising conventional capabilities can erode mutual deterrence between the two countries.
Kashmiris have been struggling to secure their fundamental right of self-determination and securing freedom from Indian shackles for more than seven decades . Their indigenous unarmed struggle for freedom has been supported by the government and people of Pakistan morally, diplomatically and politically all along. What the Prime Minister, who has since come to be known as the Ambassador of Kashmir for his raising the Kashmir issue at all international forums, said in his address to the UN General Assembly, was only yet another emphatic reiteration of all this.
While referring to emerging threat and challenge to the Muslim world of Islamophobia which needs to be combated collectively by all, the Pakistani leader pointedly and emphatically stated that the worst and most pervasive form of Islamophobia now rules India, the hate-filled Hindutva ideology propagated by the ruling regime has, quite unfortunately, unleashed a reign of fear and violence against India’s 200 million strong Muslim community. He called on the UN Secretary General to convene a global dialogue on countering the rise of Islamophobia and at the same time our parallel efforts should be to promote interfaith harmony and these should continue.
While detailing the recently emerging situation in neighbouring country of Afghanistan which warranted immediate humanitarian assistance, the Prime Minister quite emphatically told the UNGA that the country that suffered most owing to the developments during the past two decades apart from Afghanistan was Pakistan since it joined the US War on Terror after 9/11. He said that more than 80 thousand Pakistanis had died, $150 billion dollars were lost to our economy, there were 3.5 million internally displaced Pakistanis among other losses which the country had suffered on account of being the frontline state in the US War on Terror. Sounding a stern warning, the Prime Minister said that there is a huge humanitarian crisis looming ahead and this will have serious repercussions not just for the neighbours of Afghanistan but everywhere as a destabilised and chaotic Afghanistan will become a safe haven for international terrorists again, the reason the US came to Afghanistan in the first place.
Speaking at length on the background of events over the past many years, he called for strengthening and stabilising the current government for the sake of the people of Afghanistan. The Prime Minister said that the Taliban have promised to respect human rights, they will have an inclusive government, they will not allow their soil to be used by terrorists and they have already given amnesty, these were mainly the four conditions that the US-Taliban dialogue in Doha in February 2021 was all about. He concluded by urging the international community to provide humanitarian assistance in Afghanistan which is needed there urgently without wasting time. He reiterated that he had been pleading all along that there can be no military solution to the Afghanistan crisis and political settlement was the only way forward, but no one had understood.
Prime Minister Imran Khan also talked about the pandemic and its adverse impact on the economies of the countries around the globe including Pakistan, the threatening challenge of climate change, theft and illegal transfer of assets from developing countries to developed countries and a couple of other subjects which will be detailed at another time.
Published in The Nation