ISLAMABAD: Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations Dr. Maleeha Lodhi said on Friday that the voice of people of Indian-administered Kashmir had been “heard today by the highest diplomatic forum of the world.”
Addressing the media soon after the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) meeting on Kashmir, she said that the world body had discussed the deteriorating situation in the internationally recognized disputed region after New Delhi changed its constitutional status to integrate it with the Indian union.
Lodhi, who was also accompanied by the Chinese envoy to the UN, added that the meeting was briefed on the latest developments and dismal human rights situation in Indian-administered Kashmir.
The first-ever UNSC session on Kashmir since 1972 was criticized by the Indian ambassador to the United Nations who saw it as international interference in his country’s domestic affairs. “We don’t need international busybodies to try to tell us how to run our lives. We are a billion plus people,” Syed Akbaruddin was quoted as saying by the international media.
“India is a vibrant, thriving democracy and we live by it every day. We are committed to addressing the difficulties some of our people have. Please give us the time and space to address these,” he added.
However, Lodhi was emphatic when she told reporters: “This the first and not the last step. It will not end here. It will only end when justice is done to the people of Jammu and Kashmir.”
Earlier in the day, Pakistan’s Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi described the UNSC session on Kashmir as a “huge diplomatic development,” pointing to the fact that it was the first time in nearly fifty years that the council was going to take up the issue and focus on the disputed region once again.

“It nullifies New Delhi’s claim that Kashmir is India’s internal issue and amplifies Islamabad’s viewpoint that this is an internationally recognized dispute since there are 11 security council resolutions on the subject,” he told Arab News in an exclusive interview.
“India’s claim has gone out of the window: The fact that the security council is taking up the Kashmir issue for the first time after [so many years] makes it a huge diplomatic development. It also internationalizes the Kashmir issue once again,” he added.
The foreign minister maintained that his country expected UNSC member states to play their role to ensure peace and security in the region and avert a humanitarian disaster in Indian-administered Kashmir.
“We expect different departments of the [UN] secretariat to make presentations and brief security council members [on the situation]. We hope that the latest report of [United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan] is discussed. We expect that the UN Human Rights Commissioner’s reports, which were made public in June 2018 and in July 2019, are also to be discussed,” Qureshi said.
He told Arab News that Pakistan and India would not be included in the UNSC meeting. “In a closed-door meeting, only 15 members of the security council participate and no outsiders are invited,” he said.
“If there is an open debate, however, Pakistan and India will also be invited,” he said. “At this stage, it was felt that their participation would only lead to confrontation and disturb the environment of the security council. So, [the UN authorities] wanted in their wisdom to dispassionately look at the situation which, everyone agrees, is quite grave.”
Qureshi pointed out that the UNSC meeting was the result of his letter written to the UNSC president on August 13.
“Today is the 12th day of the curfew,” he added. “There is a total media gag, communications blackout, Internet services have been suspended, journalists are not allowed to perform their job, civil society activists are not allowed to go to Jammu and Kashmir.”
The Pakistani foreign minister also noted that Kashmiris across the political spectrum had rejected India’s unilateral revocation of article 370.
“Kashmiri politicians, who previously operated within India’s political system, also called the step a betrayal. Everybody has rejected it,” he added.
“Kashmir has been forcefully annexed,” Qureshi added. “India is an occupying force in Jammu and Kashmir.”
He said when New Delhi would lift curfew, people would naturally express their anger and fury at its decision to change Kashmir’s status earlier this month.
“That reaction will be met by suppression and that suppression will lead to a bloodbath. The removal of article 35-A is an attempt to bring about a demographic change [in the region]. This in itself is a form of genocide, where a state is forcibly trying to turn a majority into minority.”
Qureshi informed that a constant consultation was going on in his ministry to examine all possible options. He also held a lengthy meeting with leading experts on Kashmir who have participated in several track two engagements to get their input on the subject.
The foreign minister also told Arab News he would chair a meeting of a special committee constituted by Prime Minister Imran Khan tomorrow to take a closer look at the situation.
“All civil and military stakeholders will be present [at the meeting] and we will assess and discuss the situation. We will also decide what next steps to take in the coming days,” he added.