United Nations: The United Nations Security Council (UNSC) wil convene a special consultation session on the disputed Kashmir region between Pakistan and India in New York today, suggest reports quoting the UNSC President for the month of August and Polish diplomat, Joanna Wronecka who confirmed the development on Thursday. 

“The UNSC will discuss the Jammu and Kashmir situation behind closed doors most likely on August 16,” Wronecka said.

The Security Council’s decision to meet follows Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi’s letter delivered by Pakistan’s representative to the United Nations, Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi to the UNSC urging Wronecka to hold an emergency meeting of the 15-member council to discuss the “illegal and unilateral steps taken by Indian Government to change the disputed status of Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir and its demographic structure.”

“Pakistan will not provoke a conflict. But India should not mistake our restraint for weakness,” the letter read, according to Reuters, adding that “If India chooses to resort again to the use of force, Pakistan will be obliged to respond, in self-defense, with all its capabilities.”

And “In view of the dangerous implications” Pakistan requests UNSC to convene a session, the Foreign Minister’s note said.

China, a permanent member of the UNSC, has acknowledged to support Pakistan’s request.

However, foreign office spokesman Dr. Muhammad Faisal and foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi could not be reached to confirm whether Pakistan would indeed be present in the room at the time of consultations, till the time of filing of this report.

A total of 11 resolutions have been adopted on disputed Muslim majority Kashmir so far including one to hold a plebiscite for Kashmiris by the UNSC in 1948 and during the span of the 1950s. The last reference on the disputed Kashmir issue in the UNSC was the UN Security Council Resolution 1172 in 1998 following Pakistan’s nuclear tests.