Pakistan, India spar over Kashmir at UN

UNITED NATIONS - Rejecting an Indian claim that Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India, Pakistan on Monday called for settling the long-standing dispute that bedevils the relations between the neighbouring countries.
Reacting to a statement by Indias representative AK Haiprasad at the UN, Pakistani delegate Suljuk Mustansar Tarar also deplored the Indian attempt to equate the legitimate struggles of peoples for the right to self-determination with terrorism. Jammu and Kashmir is an internationally recognized disputed territory according to several UN Security Council resolutions on the subject and numerous undertakings and statements by the Indian leadership, he told the UN General Assembly Third Committee, which deals with social, humanitarian and cultural issues.
The Security Councils demand for free and fair plebiscite under the UN auspices still remains to be implemented, he said in the course of a verbal exchange with the Indian representative.
The exchange was triggered after Pakistans Acting Permanent representative Amjad Hussain Sial drew the attention of the international community to the Indian repression in occupied Kashmir and called for the resumption of composite dialogue to resolve the dispute.
A peaceful resolution of this dispute is imperative for durable peace, stability and progress in South Asia, Ambassador Sial said.
We must seize the opportunity for a negotiated settlement of the Jammu and Kashmir issue with the full involvement of the Kashmiri people in accordance with their aspirations, he said in a debate on the 'Right of Peoples to Self-determination.
Having gained independence through the exercise of the right to self-determination, Ambassador Sial said Pakistan had extended political, moral and diplomatic support to the exercise of that right by all other people who were entitled to that right.
The free exercise of that right, however, had been denied in some parts of the world, such as Jammu and Kashmir and Palestine, he pointed out.
On 27 October, the Pakistan representative added, the population in Indian-occupied Kashmir had been widely agitated by the anniversary of their predicament. Six decades had elapsed since the Kashmiri people were promised the exercise of the right to self-determination by the Security Council resolutions, which pronounced that the status of Jammu and Kashmir would be decided through a democratic plebiscite.
However, Sial said, the genuine aspirations of the people of Jammu and Kashmir had been thwarted by India, and instead the unfortunate Kashmiris who had attached high hopes to the dialogue process between India and Pakistan were being subjected to wide spread human rights violations and suppression.
Pakistan, he said, remained committed to the composite dialogue process with India. A peaceful resolution of that dispute was imperative for durable peace, stability and progress in South Asia.
In the course of his speech on the subject, Hariprasad, the Indian representative, said the right to self-determination could not be used for subversive political agendas, and could not be extended to component parts of groups within independent sovereign states.
He regretted Pakistans reference to Jammu and Kashmir, claiming that the two regions were an integral part of India and participated regularly in Indias elections. Pakistan should focus, instead, on taking action against terrorists and their support base, and to create conditions for a meaningful dialogue, he said.
The Indian delegate urged Pakistan not to sow detraction for the support of Palestinian people by bringing up such matters, saying Kashmir and Palestine were separate issues.
Exercising his right of reply, Tarar, the Pakistani delegate, who responded to the Indian delegates statement, said New Delhis assertion that the Kashmiris have exercised their right to self-determination through elections, had been rejected by the Security Council and by the people of Kashmir and the Kashmiri leadership.
Tarar regretted that the Indian delegate had tried to link the dispute to terrorism. Pakistans role as a frontline state fighting terrorism was acknowledged by the international community and it was resolved to continue that fight, he said.
However, the Pakistani delegate said the peoples legitimate struggle for the right to self-determination could not be equated with terrorism.
Pakistan, he said, had agreed to address the question of Jammu and Kashmir bilaterally and had advanced several ideas to that end, but there was no response. Also, the Pakistan Government reserved the right to refer to that issue at the United Nations, as and when necessary.