Malik urges FM to take Indian ceasefire violations to UNGA, ICJ

ISLAMABAD: Chairman Senate Standing Committee on Interior and former Interior Minister Senator Rehman Malik on Friday penned a letter to Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi urging him to take the case of continuous unprovoked ceasefire violation and targeting civilian population by India to the United Nations General Assembly and International Court of Justice (ICJ).

He has asked the Foreign Minister to request the United Nations Security Council to appoint a special commission to investigate all ceasefire violations by India, increase the strength of Military Observers across LoC and also file a claim of damages in terms of lives and properties in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against India.

Senator Rehman Malik has written the letter based on the Truce Agreement signed both by Pakistan, India and United Nations which bounds the two countries to implement it in letter and spirit.

He wrote that the Truce Agreement is actually a trilateral agreement as United Nations is signatory in it and both the countries continued to make agreement regarding Line of Control but did not change the contents of ‘Truce Agreement of 1949,’ and it is still in vogue.

In the letter, Senator Rehman Malik has advised Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi for proper investigation by the UN Commission into the continuous unprovoked ceasefire violations and targeting of civilian population by Indian Armed Forces at Line of Control, Imposing Penalties on Indian government for violation of “Truce Agreement” which was supervised / countersigned by United and Request for deployment of additional UN Military Observers at LoC to ensure an effective supervision to maintain proper control on the line of control as per the Truce Agreement of 1949.

The Chairman Senate’s Committee on Interior stated, in his letter to Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi that “I call upon you to kindly consider to move on the above lines asking UNGA to ensure implementation of” Truce Agreement” of 1949, which is still a valid agreement whereas, Simla Agreement signed in 1972 is a bilateral agreement and hence it cannot overrule the trilateral “Truce Agreement” signed between India, Pakistan and United Nations.”

He stated that as India and Pakistan entered into 1965 and 1971 wars and signed two new bilateral treaties (Tashkand declaration of 1966 and Simla Agreement of 1972), the Truce agreement signed in 1949 is considered as dead / redundant by India, except for the boundary lines (LoC) between Azad Kashmir and the Indian Occupied Kashmir. “Later on, a new ceasefire agreement was signed in November, 2003, but it was also not taken seriously by India, and it continued unprovoked firing on LoC. Unfortunately, the United Nations has failed to take any action against India for breaking the initial Truce agreement as well as other agreements,” he stated in his letter.

He wrote that the National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) had reported in the National Assembly that ‘unprovoked’ Indian firing across the LoC had cost 832 lives, 3000 severe injuries, and 3,300 houses had been

damaged in Azad Kashmir till June, 2017.

He stated that the NDMA also informed the House that 425,000 citizens are continuously under the threat of Indian unprovoked firings at LoC.

Senator Rehman Malik stated that the plea by India to resolve the Kashmir issue bilaterally, without any third party involvement / mediation seems to have withered away by India as India is reluctant to come on the table to discuss either the Kashmir issue or implementation of the Truce Agreement. “The Indian government many times committed for a composite dialogue which also included Kashmir, but history is witness that India always avoided its commitments, and it frustrated every move to resolve it in the past,” he stated.

Rehman Malik stated that the damage of the lives and properties in Azad Kashmir due to unprovoked ceasefire violations by Indian Armed Forces and careful examination of the “Truce agreement” of 1949 entitles Pakistan to claim from India through United Nations or taking the mater to International Court of Justice (ICJ).