Nov 05 , 2015
News
Pakistan rejects Indian claim to Kashmir
UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan on Tuesday firmly rejected an Indian claim to Kashmir as an “integral part” of India, saying it was an internationally recognised disputed territory.
Diyar Khan, a minister at the Pakistan Mission to the United Nations, told the UN General Assembly’s Third Committee meeting that legal and factual background of Jammu and Kashmir dispute is quite clear and Indian efforts to mislead or confuse the international community would not succeed. As representatives of the two countries sparred over the decades-old issue at the United Nations in the committee meeting dealing with social, humanitarian and cultural questions, Khan maintained that the disputed nature of state was well established by several UN Security Council resolutions that call for a settlement of this problem through a free and impartial plebiscite under the auspices of the United Nations.
Diyar Khan was reacting to a statement by Indian delegate Rattan Lal Kataria, who in his speech maintained that Kashmir was its “integral part” and that Pakistan was in illegal occupation of a part of that “Indian state”. He also claimed that people in India-held Kashmir had regularly participated in “free, fair and open elections.” Kataria, a member of Indian parliament. Diyar Khan, who was speaking in right of reply to the Indian delegates assertions, referred to the argument that Kashmiris had already exercised their right to self-determination through elections, and said it was a fact known to all that elections in India-held Kashmir were only not recognised by the UN Security Council but also rejected by the people of Kashmir and their representative political leadership.
“The Security Council resolutions had also clarified that no electoral exercise conducted by Indian authorities in Jammu and Kashmir could be accepted as substitute to a free and impartial plebiscite under the UN auspices,” said Khan. About the Indian allegations of terrorism, he called it a false campaign to divert attention from the real issue, saying such tactics would not set aside the Kashmiri people’s inalienable right to self-determination. The purpose of Indian allegations, he said, was to force Pakistan to stop raising the issue of Kashmir at the UN.
Courtesy www.dailytimes.com.pk