India, Pakistan clash over Kashmir at UN
By APP
Published: October 2, 2012
UNITED NATIONS: Representatives of Pakistan and India had a verbal duel in the UN General Assembly on Monday night over the decades-old Jammu and Kashmir dispute between the two South Asian countries.
Reacting to Indian External Affairs Minister SM Krishnas assertion earlier in the day that last weeks remarks by President Asif Ali Zardari remarks on Kashmir were unwarranted, Pakistans Deputy Permanent Representative Raza Bashir Tarar defended the Pakistani leaders statement as the dispute, he said, remained unresolved.
Let me begin by emphasizing that the reference to the Jammu and Kashmir dispute in the President of Pakistans statement was not unwarranted, Ambassador Tarar said, while exercising his right of reply to the Indian ministers statement, in which Krishna had also claimed that the Himalayan state was an integral part of India.
Let me also make it absolutely clear that Jammu and Kashmir is neither an integral part of India nor has it ever been, the Pakistani envoy told the 193-member Assembly.
Zardari had reaffirmed in his speech that Pakistan will continue to support the right of the people of Jammu & Kashmir to peacefully choose their destiny in accordance with the UN Security Councils long-standing resolutions on this matter.
Kashmir, he said, remained a symbol of the failures of the United Nations system rather than its strengths. The president went on to say that a solution could only be reached in an environment of cooperation.
Indian delegate Vinay Kumar, responding to references by Ambassador Tarar of Pakistan, insisted that Jammu and Kashmir states were an integral part of India, adding that Pakistans illegal occupation of parts of the region was in violation of Indias territorial integrity and international law.
India, he added, rejected Pakistans claim in its entirety. Exercising his right of reply for a second time, Ambassador Tarar said the disputed status of Jammu and Kashmir had been set out in Security Council resolutions and agreed upon by both Pakistan and India.
As such, characterizing the region as an integral part of India was untenable, he said, adding that the people of Jammu and Kashmir had not exercised their right to self-determination.