Pakistan Wants UNSC To Stand For Law And Justice For People Of Occupied Kashmir

UNITED NATIONS, (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point News - 14th Aug, 2019 ) :Pakistan has expressed the hope that the 15-member Security Council would meet soon to deal with the grave situation in Indian Occupied Kashmir resulting from India's move to annex the disputed region, Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi said Tuesday, "We would like the Security Council to take note of the illegal annexation by India," she said in an interview with BBC news, after making a formal request for a Council meeting.

The request for the meeting was contained in a letter from Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi that Ambassador Lodhi presented on Tuesday to Polish Ambassador Joanna Wronecka, who is the president of the 15-member Council for the month of August. The Council president will now hold consultations with Council members and fix a date to discuss the issue.

Responding to questions she said for Pakistan, "This is an issue of law and justice and we are confident that the international community, members of the Security Council, will come down on the right side of history.

"The right side of history is to stand by people who been turned into prisoners on their own land, whose very basic liberties have been curbed, and now their religious freedom has even been curtailed..." Ambassador Lodhi added.

Calling the situation on the ground "extremely serious", the Pakistani envoy said, "We would also like the Security Council members to reaffirm the Security Council resolutions" it had adopted in the past that call for a UN-supervised plebiscite for the people of Kashmir to decide their future.

When pressed to name the countries supporting Pakistan's case, Ambassador Lodhi asked her interviewer to wait for the Council meeting and said once a meeting is convened that will itself nullify India's claim that it is an internal matter.

"The very fact that we've had support from the Secretary-General of the United Nations (Antonio Guterres) only a few days ago -- the SG of the UN said very clearly that he was concerned about the situation, (that) the human rights situation was going to exacerbate and that he felt that this issue had to be resolved according to the (UN) Charter and relevant, applicable UN Security Council resolutions,"the Pakistani envoy said.

"If this isn't support ( for the Kashmiri people) I don't know what is,"she remarked.

" I've been speaking to all members of the Security Council and we are hoping that the Security Council will pronounce in the same way that the Secretary-General of the United Nations has pronounced on this matter, which is that it is anything but an internal matter,"she said.

"It is an international dispute that remains on the agenda of the Security Council and if law, justice and the pain and suffering and the plight of the Kashmiri people mean anything to the international community, you will see that they will stand up to address the plight of the Kashmiri people."