ISLAMABAD: Departing from the multilateral diplomatic norms, the United Nations has, in a strange manner, assigned chairmanship of two key committees to India without taking into consideration Pakistan’s interests.
The committees include Taliban Sanction Committee and Counter-Terrorism Committee.
India could harm Pakistan’s position, being a party against the country [Pakistan] on both the counts. The country’s mission at the headquarters of the world body failed in sensing the upcoming role that has been given to India after its becoming member of the UN Security Council on the advent of the new year. The Foreign Office also failed in extending alert to its mission in New York to keep watch on such developments.
Diplomatic sources told The News on Saturday that India had assumed three subsidiary bodies of the UNSC. The third is pertaining to Libya sanctions committee. India’s envoy to the UN TS Tirumurti had earlier proudly announced in a tweet that India had been asked to chair three key committees of the UNSC including Taliban, Terrorism and Libya.
The sources pointed out that Pakistan has throughout been complaining about Indian sponsored terrorism on its soil aiming to destabilise Pakistan for its ulterior motives. On the other hand, New Delhi has unleashed a reign of terror against its Muslim and other minorities throughout that country.
At the same time, India has annexed part of Jammu and Kashmir that was in Indian occupation, in defiance of the UNSC resolutions. The innocent people of illegally occupied areas of Kashmir are being victimised through terror acts of Indian armed forces and subjected to Indian tyranny in the past seven decades.
Unfortunately, India has falsely been blaming the oppressed people of occupied Kashmir for the army action, and terming their freedom struggle terrorism. The sources pointed out that as the matter is already pending on the agenda of the Security Council and India is an accused party in that, now the chairmanship of the committee dealing with the terrorism could provide an opportunity to it to harm the case of Pakistan. It would also send a message of disappointment to the people of occupied Kashmir, who are fighting for their birthrights.
Likewise, the sources reminded that Taliban issue is directly linked with Pakistan and as the chairman of Taliban Sanction Committee, India could jeopardise Pakistan’s interests. It would become a source of threat directly to Taliban, who are fighting against the ruling elements in Afghan capital, which are declared ally of the Indian government.
These are the people openly working for the Indian cause and targeting Pakistan for the sake of India, the sources said. For the reason, sources said that the two committees had always been a thorn in our side even when so-called friendly countries were chairing it in the past.
Indian chairmanship of the two would make the situation even worse. The sources are flabbergasted that China, being the P-5 member of the UNSC, did not act and blocked the Indian chairmanship of the two sensitive committees, directly linked with the interests of its known ally, Pakistan. If Islamabad did not ask China to play its role in the matter, it demonstrated utter failure of the diplomatic sense of the people dealing with the multilateral affairs of the country.
The sources said that had Pakistan sought the Chinese help, it could conveniently have blocked the Indian efforts. It shows that Pakistan could not anticipate the role India was mulling to occupy the world body’s scene. It could not be ascertained that had Pakistan asked China to persuade other fellow permanent (P-5) members of the UNSC to act for stalling assigning the two committees to India, since it would not allow their work to proceed with objectivity.
Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi and Foreign Secretary Sohail Mehmood did not respond the queries of the scribe about the negative development at the UN headquarters.
However, Additional Foreign Secretary and a spokesman for the Foreign Office, Zahid Hafeez Chaudhry, said: “India’s negative role in maintenance of international peace and security - the prime mandate of the UNSC - is well known.
“India’s state-sponsorship of terrorism in Pakistan and its elaborate schemes and global network for spreading disinformation about Pakistan have also been fully exposed. It is important that members of the Security Council ensure that India is not allowed to abuse its position as a non-permanent member of the UNSC.”