Pakistan demands serious enforcement of international law

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Monday urged the international community to ‘enforce more seriously’ the respect for international humanitarian law.

‘The law should be enforced indiscriminately and without conditions, particularly in cases where innocent lives are in danger due to state sponsored high-handedness,” said Fauzia Wahab, a National Assembly member, while addressing the Special Political and Decolonisation Committee of the UN General Assembly.

For the UN’s credibility, she said, it was vital that international law should not be flouted by powerful nations.

She said the actual problem in the Middle East was “the occupation of Palestinian territories by Israel”. She demanded Israel implement UNSC resolutions 242, 338, 1397, and 1515 that give a roadmap for establishing a durable peace in the region based on the land for peace formula.

She said peace was not just the absence of war. “It is a disposition for justice and equity. Justice in the Holy Land remains elusive. The Palestinian territories and the Syrian Arab Golan remain in foreign occupation,” she said. “The Arabs remain in refugee camps under the threat of attacks. The economic and social conditions in the occupied Palestinian territories remain in tatters mostly because of restrictions imposed by Israel. All this needs to be reversed,” she added. She said economic and social barriers and attacks should end and a plebiscite be held to promote peace and end injustice. app

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