The National Assembly of Pakistan on October 23, 2014 again tried to exploit its own people by invoking the so-called UN Resolution of August 13, 1948 vis-à-vis Jammu and Kashmir. The Pakistan National Assembly has taken a u-turn in its attitude towards this Resolution by seeking UN intervention to ensure that the wishes of the Kashmiris are carried out. The UN Resolution was buried in its womb by Pakistan itself in 1950 when it refused to implement it.

Pakistan managed to get Anglo-American support to divert the attention of Pakistanis from the mandate of the UN Resolution which directed Pakistan to vacate all occupied territories of J&K. Justice Owen Dixon of the Australian High Court was appointed to report to the United Nations on the issue of the implementation of the UN Resolution of August, 1948. Justice Dixon at the instance of Anglo-American Bloc floated a new theory - later called Dixon Plan - to divide J&K on communal lines. This Dixon Plan was rejected by Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru in 1952. Nehru got Sheikh Abdullah dismissed from his job and arrested in 1953 as Sheikh had declared support for the Dixon Plan after his return to from UN Assembly as an Indian delegate in 1953.

Last month, Pakistan Security Advisor on Foreign Affairs made several statements in connection with Indo-Pak relations vis-à-vis J&K. No doubt, Nawaz Sharif is in trouble as the Pakistan army is trying to find out ways to return to power, which is possible only if the democratic government is thrown out. This is exactly what was done by General Musharraf in 1999 when Nawaz Sharif was dislodged from power. The pretext was the humiliating defeat of General Musharraf in Kargil. Nawaz Sharif earned the hostility of the White House when he refused to allow the Pentagon to fix its base in Baltistan, around Siachen. Sharif managed to return to power through difficult circumstances; he has been experiencing internal uprising within Pakistan, sponsored by the ISI-backed CIA, as the US intends to dislodge Nawaz Sharif.

Nawaz Sharif got a chance to appeal to the Pakistani masses by invoking the so-called K-issue on the floor of the General Assembly of the UN last month which was probably necessitated by events rocking Pakistan internally. India got an opportunity to expose Pakistan for shedding crocodile tears, but Prime Minister Modi missed a grand opportunity to let the 193-strong world assembly know who violated the UN Resolutions on J&K from day one.

Meanwhile, Sartaj Ali has written another letter to the UN Secretary General demanding implementation of the UN Resolution on J&K. Pakistan has provided one more opportunity to the Indian leadership to strike back when the iron is hot, through diplomatic and international channels available to India at the very threshold of the United Nations where Pakistan has tried to knock again. Pakistan has to be told in clear terms of the resolution.

Pakistan has asked UN for its intervention for implementation of the UN Resolution. Pakistan should have gone through the speech made by VK Krishna Menon, India’s representative in United Nations, in1957; he raised several issues regarding violations of the UN Resolution vis-à-vis Jammu and Kashmir. He questioned Pakistan on its aggression against J&K (India) in 1947 and other violations.

The situation in 2014 provides strong evidence against Pakistan for violating the Resolutions of the UN vis-à-vis J&K. Firstly, the August 13, 1948 resolution of the Security Council directed Pakistan to vacate all occupied territories of J&K. These territories include entire POK (Ladakh-Kashmir), Gilgit-Baltistan, Chitral and Hunza comprising 32,000 sq. miles of Indian territory.

Secondly, the UN Resolution specifically commanded that the entire territory of J&K shall remain under the control of the Indian Army limited to the strength meant to maintain law and order. Thirdly, the UN Resolution directed the Govt. of J&K (i.e., of Maharaja Hari Singh, who was the ruler of J&K until his rule was terminated on August 20, 1952 by a resolution passed by the nominated Constituent Assembly of J&K) to appoint the nominee of the United Nations as the commission for holding plebiscite in J&K. Fourthly, the United Nations made it clear without any ambiguity that the residents of J&K shall have to choose between India and Pakistan. There was no such thing as wishes of the people or for any third choice.

India has failed to expose Pakistan’s designs to deliberately and intentionally violate the UN Resolutions. Firstly, Pakistan leased out 4600 sq. miles of our land in the Karakoram highway (Baltistan) in 1963 for 99 years to China. China built a national highway connecting Beijing with Peshawar (Pakistan) through this Indian territory (Baltistan) ceded by Pakistan. China has raised strong defence structures including 60 helipads for offensive purposes.

Pakistan committed another violation in the 1970s by declaring Chitral, a district of Gilgit, as a district of Pakistan. Pakistan committed a grave violation of the UN Resolution in 2009 when it declared via a notification that the entire Gilgit-Baltistan comprising 28,000 sq. miles of Indian Territory was an integral constituent of Pakistan and its fifth province. Pakistan held elections to the Legislative Assembly of Gilgit-Baltistan in 2010 styling its Chief Executive as Chief Minister - a glaring example of throwing the entire UN Resolution to the winds.

Pakistan has kept only a small piece of J&K territory from Mirpur to Muzaffarabad, comprising about 4500 sq. miles, and projected it as ‘Azad Kashmir’. The entire leadership of J&K on the Pak-side has been questioning Islamabad’s authority to annex Gilgit-Baltistan to Pakistan. The most shocking phenomenon is that the Indian leadership from 1963 to this day has never tried to raise this horrifying picture of Pakistan’s game to destroy the very mandate of the UN Resolutions vis-à-vis Jammu and Kashmir.  

Prime Minister Narendra Modi should have brought these facts and circumstances to the notice of General Assembly when he addressed it soon after the Pakistan premier. Secondly, when India was attacked by shelling on the international border in RS Pura sector of J&K, which resulted in the brutal killing of innocent civilians asleep in their homes, India did not bring this violation to the notice of the United Nations. The Indian representative should have informed the UN General Assembly of these facts, so that it could judge who is right and who is wrong.

Sixty-seven years have passed since Maharaja Hari Singh signed the Instrument of Accession with the Union of India in his own right, which was vested in him by the India Independence Act of the United Kingdom. The Maharaja signed the Instrument of Accession on October 26, 1947 five days after Pakistan attacked J&K via Muzaffarabad. Lord Louis Mountbatten accepted the Instrument of Accession on October 27, 1947 thus putting a permanent seal on the State’s Accession with the Union of India. This fact was accepted by Sir Zafarulla Khan while he was acting as a judge of the International Court of Justice. Pakistan has no case, neither legal, nor constitutional nor otherwise, to call J&K a disputed territory. The people of J&K from Kashmir to Kanyakumari celebrate the Accession with India.