‘No change in Pakistan’s Kashmir policy’

By Khalid Hasan

WASHINGTON: A spokesman of the Pakistan Mission to the United Nations told Daily Times on Sunday there was, and could be, no change in Pakistan’s position on Kashmir as some reports had tried to deduce from Ambassador Munir Akram’s remark at a news conference on Friday that during his presidency the question of Kashmir would not be raised.

The spokesman, in response to press speculation insinuating that Pakistan had agreed not to raise Kashmir in the Security Council during its current presidency, recalled that Ambassador Munir Akram had stated that Kashmir is the highest priority issue for Pakistan. As such, Pakistan in its national capacity would continue to raise Kashmir in the Security Council and all relevant international forums.

He pointed out that Pakistan’s permanent UN representative had also stated that as president of the Security Council, Pakistan would act with impartiality and objectivity. He had emphasised that it is not the practice of Pakistani diplomacy to exploit conference posts such as the presidency of the Security Council for partisan purposes.

The spokesman told this correspondent that Pakistan continued to raise the unresolved issue of Kashmir and the urgent need to resolve it in accordance with UN resolutions and in line with the wishes of the people of Jammu and Kashmir in every forum at all times. And it would continue to do so.

The spokesman said Pakistan was a member of the Security Council, having begun its two-year term this year. However, during its one-month term as president of the Council, it would want to conduct Council business in a non-partisan manner. No opportunity would be given to any country to mire a question, which was the subject of numerous Security Council resolutions in unnecessary controversy.

The spokesman said Pakistan had called for a debate in the Council on 13 May on unresolved disputes and the whole world knew that Kashmir was the oldest unresolved dispute on the agenda of the United Nations.

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