Pakistan’s ambassador to the United Nations raised this question while voicing deep concern over the 15-member forum’s inability to act against India for its flagrant violations in the disputed Kashmir territory that New Delhi annexed on August 5.
Munir Akram minced no words in his first appearance at the forum since assuming charge.
“Unfortunately, the Security Council has had uneven success in resolving threats to and breaches of international peace and security, which is its primary mandate,” Ambassador Akram told the body in a debate on ‘The Role of Reconciliation in Maintaining International Peace and Security’.
“In particular, Pakistan is deeply concerned at absence of action by the Security Council to halt India’s violations of human rights and Security Council resolutions in the disputed state of Jammu and Kashmir,” he noted.
“In contrast, the Council has been propelled in other instances towards a rapid resort to sanctions and enforcement action,” the Permanent Representative pointed out.
The diplomat’s remarks represent a growing Pakistani unease at the doublespeak of the Security Council, which met soon after the BJP Government in New Delhi revoked Kashmir’s autonomous status but failed to come out with a condemnation of Indian action.
Kashmiris have been living under a strict military clampdown with no Internet or legal recourse in the cases of kidnappings and arbitrary arrests by Indian forces. Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government has also denied freedom of expression and assembly to people.
India says it has changed the status of the territory it administered and now Jammu and Kashmir are separate areas, not as disputed territory but part of the Indian Union.
For its part, the UN Secretary General has expressed concern over the predicament of Kashmiri people and also offered to mediate should both countries so desire but the world body has not gone beyond its offers and concerns.
The Security Council has five members with veto power, and it hardly ever speaks in one voice on major conflicts including Kashmir and Palestine.
