Pakistan and the United Nations
  | |
| United Nations membership | |
|---|---|
| Membership | Full member |
| Since | 1947 |
| UNSC seat | Non-permanent |
| Ambassador | Masood Khan |
Pakistan officially joined the United Nations (UN) on 30 September 1947 just over a month after its independence from the British Empire. Today, it is a charter member and participates in all [citation needed] of the UN's specialised agencies and organisations. Pakistan has been elected a number of times into the UN Security Council (see List of members of the United Nations Security Council). It is also one of the countries which has had a diplomat, Muhammad Zafarullah Khan, serve a term as the President of the United Nations General Assembly.
Representation
Pakistan maintains a permanent mission to the UN, which is currently headed by Ambassador Abdullah Hussain Haroon in New York. There is a second mission based at the UNO office in Geneva, Switzerland.
Peacekeeping
The Pakistani military has played a key role in the UN's peacekeeping programme in different parts of the world, most prominently in Somalia, Sierra Leone, Bosnia, Congo and Liberia. Currently, Pakistan stands as the largest[dubious – discuss] contributor of troops to United Nations peacekeeping missions in the world, and is followed by Bangladesh and India.[1]
Politics
Pakistan's Mission
The Kashmir dispute is the oldest unresolved international conflict in the world today. Pakistan considers Kashmir as its core political dispute with India. India's occupation of the State of Jammu and Kashmir in 1947 is the main cause of the dispute. India claims to have ‘signed' a controversial document, the Instrument of Accession, on 26 October 1947 with the Maharaja of Kashmir, in which the Maharaja obtained India's military help against popular insurgency. The entire world considers The state of Jammu and Kashmir divided into three parts occupied by India, Pakistan (PoK) and a part by China. The fact is that all the principles on the basis of which the Indian subcontinent was partitioned by the British in 1947 stated that all the former Princely States had a choice of either joining India or Pakistan. On 20 October 1947,Locals and tribesmen backed by Pakistan invaded Kashmir.
The Maharaja initially fought back but appealed for assistance to the Governor-General Louis Mountbatten, who agreed on the condition that the ruler accede to India. Maharaja Hari Singh signed the Instrument of Accession on 26 October 1947, which was accepted by the Governor General of India the next day. Once the Instrument of Accession was signed, Indian soldiers entered Kashmir with orders to evict the raiders. India took the matter to the United Nations. The UN resolution asked both India and Pakistan to vacate the areas they had occupied and hold a referendum under UN observation. The holding of this plebiscite, which India initially supported, was dismissed by India because the 1952 elected Constituent assembly of Jammu and Kashmir voted in favour of confirming the Kashmir region's accession to India. The United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) was deployed to supervise the ceasefire between India and Pakistan. UNMOGIP's functions were to investigate complaints of ceasefire violations and submit findings to each party and to the U.N. secretary-general. Under the terms of the ceasefire, it was decided that both armies would withdraw and a plebiscite would be held in Kashmir to give Kashmiris the right to self-determination. The primary argument for the continuing debate over the ownership of Kashmir is that India did not hold the promised plebiscite. In fact, neither side has adhered to the U.N. resolution of 13 August 1948; while India chose not to hold the plebiscite, Pakistan failed to withdraw its troops from Kashmir as was required under the resolution. India gives the following reasons for not holding the plebiscite:
•United Nations Security Council Resolution 47 on Kashmir was passed by UNSC under chapter VI of UN Charter, which are non binding and have no mandatory enforceability.In March 2001, the then Secretary-General of the United Nations, Kofi Annan during his visit to India and Pakistan,remarked that Kashmir resolutions are only advisory recommendations and comparing with those on East Timor and Iraq was like comparing apples and oranges, since those resolutions were passed under chapter VII, which make it enforceable by US. In 2003, the then Pakistan President Pervez Musharraf announced that Pakistan was willing to back off from demand for UN resolutions for Kashmir.
•Moreover, India alleges that Pakistan failed to fulfill the pre-conditions by withdrawing its troops from the Kashmir region as was required under the same U.N. resolution of 13 August 1948 which discussed the plebiscite.
•India has consistently told that UN resolutions are now completely irrelevant and Kashmir dispute is a bilateral issue and it has to be resolved under 1972 Simla Agreement and 1999 Lahore Declaration.
•The 1948–49 U.N. resolutions can no longer be applied, according to India, because of changes in the original territory, with some parts "having been handed over to China by Pakistan and demographic changes having been effected in Azad Kashmir and the Northern Areas.
•Another reason for the abandonment of the referendum is because demographic changes after 1947 have been effected in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, as generations of Pakistani individuals non-native to the region have been allowed to take residence in Pakistan-administered Kashmir. Furthermore, India alleges that in Jammu & Kashmir state of India, the demographics of the Kashmir Valley have been altered after separatist militants coerced 250,000 Kashmiri Hindus to leave the region.
•India cites the 1952 elected Constituent assembly of Jammu and Kashmir, which voted in favour of confirming accession to India. New Delhi says that since Kashmiris have voted in successive national elections in India, there is no need for a plebiscite."[citation needed] "
In response Pakistan holds that:
•The popular Kashmiri insurgency demonstrates that the Kashmiri people no longer wish to remain within India"[citation needed]. Pakistan suggests that this means that Kashmir either wants to be with Pakistan or independent"[citation needed] " According to the two-nation theory, which is one of the theories that is cited for the partition that created India and Pakistan, Kashmir should have been with Pakistan, because it has a Muslim majority.[citation needed]
•India has shown disregard to the resolutions of the UN Security Council and the United Nations Commission in India and Pakistan by failing to hold a plebiscite to determine the future allegiance of the state. Pakistan has noted the widespread use of extrajudicial killings in Indian-administered Kashmir carried out by Indian security forces while claiming they were caught up in encounters with militants. These encounters are commonplace in Indian-administered Kashmir. The encounters go largely uninvestigated by the authorities, and the perpetrators are spared criminal prosecution.
There have been numerous Terrorist activities carried out by Group given shelter by Pakistan for the liberation of Kashmir. However, The Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly election, 2014 had an excellent turnout of 65.23% despite heavy firing by Pakistan a day before polling, showing that the people of Jammu and Kashmir have accepted being a part of India.
Kashmir conflict
The UN continues to remain a keen observer of the Kashmir conflict between Pakistan and India, centring around the disputed state of Jammu and Kashmir. Since the transfer of power to both countries in 1947 of the divided territory, the UN has played an extensive role in regulating and monitoring the dispute.
- United Nations Security Council Resolution 29
- United Nations Security Council Resolution 622
- United Nations Security Council Resolution 647
- United Nations Security Council Resolution 1172
See also
References
External links
- Permanent Mission of Pakistan to the United Nations (Official website)
- The United Nations in Pakistan
