Pakistan has an ‘obsessive focus on harming India’, India tells UNSC
India also labelled Pakistan the “global epicentre of terror” and questioned its domestic political record by referring to the imprisonment of a former PM and the sweeping powers given to the Army chief.
Citing the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack, India’s permanent representative to the UN P Harish said the attack “involved religion-based targeted killings of 26 innocent civilians by Pakistan-sponsored terrorists”.
“Pakistan, of course, has a unique way of respecting the will of its people – by jailing a former prime minister, by banning the ruling political party and by letting its armed forces engineer a constitutional coup through the 27th amendment and giving lifetime immunity to its chief of defence forces,” Harish said at the UNSC Open Debate on Leadership for Peace.
The 27th constitutional amendment has reshaped the military and judicial system of Pakistan and granted lifetime immunity from criminal prosecution to chief of defence forces Asim Munir.
Harish referred to former Pakistan PM Imran Khan’s incarceration in a ₹190 million corruption case since August 2023, along with trials under the Anti-Terrorism Act related to the May 9, 2023, protests. He also pointed to concerns raised by UN special rapporteur on torture Alice Jill Edwards regarding Khan’s alleged inhuman treatment in jail.
Harish rejected Pakistan’s references to J&K as “unwarranted”, describing Islamabad’s claims as evidence of its “obsessive focus on harming India and its people”.
“A serving non-permanent Security Council member that chooses to further this obsession in all meetings and platforms of the UN in pursuit of its divisive agenda cannot be expected to fulfil its designated responsibilities and obligations,” he said.
He also said the Indus Waters Treaty will remain on hold until Pakistan ends its support for all forms of terrorism. “India had entered into the Indus Waters Treaty, 65 years ago, in good faith. Throughout these six-and-a-half decades, Pakistan has violated the spirit of the treaty by inflicting three wars and thousands of terror attacks on India. It is in this backdrop that India has announced the treaty will be held in abeyance until Pakistan credibly and irrevocably ends its support for cross-border and all other forms of terrorism,” Harish said.
