KARACHI:
The United Nations was established to resolve disputes among nations to ensure world peace. Unfortunately, it has failed badly to achieve this aim. At the time of the partition of the sub-continent, India annexed the Muslim-majority Kashmir region in connivance with its Hindu ruler, Mahraja Hari Singh, against the will of the Kashmiris. The people of Kashmir revolted, and the issue led to an armed conflict between the two newly formed countries. Pakistan lent support to the local Kashmiri population to protect its own borders and to block the illegal annexation of Kashmir by India.
Facing a severe revolt by the local population and war with Pakistan, India took the matter to the UN, where a resolution was passed that the fate of Kashmir would be decided through a plebiscite. With this the war ended, as Kashmiris and Pakistan expected the UN to ensure India would act on the resolution. Unfortunately, this never happened. There have been multiple wars between Pakistan and India on this issue, but the UN has failed to force India to hold the plebiscite. Since then India has been acting as an oppressing force in the Kashmir valley, trying to marginalise the locals and inflicting worst atrocities on them. India has become so emboldened by global silence regarding the issue that it recently attacked the UN vehicles.
The UN has done nothing but to urge India and Pakistan to settle the issue bilaterally in a peaceful manner. Similarly, the UN has utterly failed to condemn Israeli occupation and aggression against the Palestinian people. It seems that the UN is more of a forum to legitimise and support the actions of superpowers, especially the US, when they wreak havoc on other nations under one pretext or another — be it the phony claim of weapons of mass destruction, or the trumpeted Libyan threat.
Raja Shafaatullah
Islamabad
Published in The Express Tribune, February 2nd, 2021.
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