Pakistan urges UN to implement resolutions for settlement of Kashmir issue

Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to UN Asim Iftikhar Ahmad has called upon the international community, particularly the Security Council, to translate its own resolutions into meaningful action towards a just and peaceful settlement of Jammu and Kashmir dispute.

He was speaking at Pakistan hosted Arria Formula meeting of the Security Council.

The ambassador underscored the risks posed by the continued failure to resolve the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, particularly in the context of tensions between two nuclear-armed States.

Asim described the situation in Occupied Palestinian Territories (OPT) and Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) as an enduring test of the authority of international law and the credibility of the UN Security Council.

“Nearly eight decades ago, the Security Council, through more than a dozen resolutions established a pathway towards a peaceful settlement, through a free and impartial plebiscite to be held under the UN in Jammu and Kashmir to ascertain the will of its people.

“That promise remains unfulfilled while atrocities by the Indian occupation forces intensified. The 2018 and 2019 OHCHR reports, together with several communications by UN Special Procedures, have raised serious concerns over excessive use of force, arbitrary detentions, widespread torture, enforced disappearances, sexual violence, impunity, and restrictions on fundamental freedoms. For instance, in one of the Joint Communication of UN Special Procedures of 16 October 2025, they have expressed serious concern at arrest and detention of around 2,800 individuals in the occupied territory, including journalists and human rights defenders; demolition of homes; blocking of around 8,000 social media accounts; and 64 recorded incidents of hate speech, intimidation and dehumanization targeting Kashmiris and Muslims just between a short period from April 22 and May 2, 2025,” he said.

In addition, the envoy said, India’s illegal and unilateral measures of August 5, 2019, affecting domicile, land ownership and political representation have enabled illegal demographic changes, alongside restrictions on political activity, expression and religious freedom.

Demanding that Israeli occupation must end, he said that the Palestinian people must be able to live in freedom and dignity by exercising their right to self-determination.  

“Nowhere has the credibility of the international legal order been tested more painfully than in Gaza, where immense destruction, displacement, and deprivation have devastated an entire society. Gaza is a test of whether the fundamental principles of IHL apply equally and without exception. Ultimately, occupation must end.

“The Palestinian people must be able to live in freedom and dignity, exercise their right to self-determination, and realize an independent and sovereign State on pre-1967 borders, with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital,” he added.