Disputed territory: UN resolutions on Kashmir ‘still valid’, says Foreign Office

No bilateral agreements can override resolutions, reiterates spokesperson

ISLAMABAD:

Pakistan on Thursday said the decades-old UN Security Council resolutions calling for a plebiscite in the disputed region of Jammu and Kashmir are still “valid”. “The UN Security Council resolutions gave Kashmiris the right to decide their future, through a plebiscite, through the exercise of their right of self-determination.

Those resolutions are as valid today as they were when they were adopted. That is our legal position,” said Pakistan’s foreign ministry spokesperson.

Speaking at her weekly news briefing, Tasnim Aslam also dismissed the impression that following the Simla accord signed between Pakistan and India in 1972, the UNSC resolutions on Kashmir had now become irrelevant. “The Simla agreement starts with a reference to the UN Charter. Also, no bilateral agreement can override the UN Security Council resolutions,” she emphasised.

Clarifying Pakistan’s position further, the spokesperson was of the view that there would be a misunderstanding that bilateral negotiations between Pakistan and India could “undermine” the UNSC resolutions.

The controversy regarding the relevance of UN resolutions on Kashmir emerged as a result of a reference made by Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif during his speech at the General Assembly session. India, however, is against internationalising the issue insisting that Kashmir is a bilateral dispute between the two neighbors.

India last month cancelled the foreign secretary level talks at the eleventh hour as a protest over Pakistan High Commissioner’s meeting with Kashmir leaders in New Delhi. Prime Minister’s Advisor on National Security and Foreign Affairs Sartaj Aziz acknowledged recently that the timing of the meeting might have been “not right”.

When asked to comment on Aziz’s remarks, Aslam said, “The adviser was responding to a question and the thrust of what he said was that we will continue to meet the Kashmiri leadership whenever we consider it necessary.”

In reply to another question, she said the de-militarisation of Siachen and making it a peace park had been under discussion in the past. She said India was not willing to withdraw troops without authentication of the actual position that they held. This was legally not possible, she argued.

Members of the Senate Defence Committee recently visited what is known as the world’s highest battlefield. The chairman of the panel Senator Mushahid Hussain called for declaring Siachen a ‘peace zone.’

Published in The Express Tribune, October 3^rd, 2014.