Pakistan plays to its internal audience The Statesman 30 Jun 2026
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Pakistan plays to its internal audience The Statesman 30 Jun 2026
Speaking as the co-chair at the Arria-formula meeting of the Security Council on ‘Bridging the Implementation Gap: Security Council Resolutions and the Maintenance of International Peace and Security,’ Pakistan’s permanent member to the UN, Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, raised Kashmir, as expected. He reiterated Pakistan’s standard cry for self-determination for Kashmir based on UN resolutions. Pakistan’s UN representatives have been directed to mention Kashmir at every opportunity, whether it is in context or not, solely for reminding the world that the region remains disputed.
The Indian Permanent Representative to the UN, Parvathaneni Harish, countered the same in strong terms. He stated, ‘I would only like to stress, for brevity of time, that the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir is a matter strictly internal to India. It has always been, is, and will remain so.’ Schooling Pakistan, he added, ‘It is incredible that a co-chair expected to be balanced and unbiased in conduct has chosen to politicise this forum.’ This exchange is normal in global bodies and largely ignored mainly due to its regular occurrence.
Kashmir is listed under Chapter VI of UN disputes, which include resolution mechanisms like ‘bilateral procedures already adopted by the parties concerned.’ Under the Shimla agreement and the Lahore Declaration, all issues between the two states are to be resolved bilaterally. India refuses mediation in any form and this has been globally accepted.
Since the time protests began in POK, resulting in targeting of innocents by Pak security forces, Islamabad has been accusing India, solely to deflect its brutal actions, including preventing entry of food and medicines into the region. India responded firmly by mentioning ‘It is a desperate attempt by Pakistan to cover up its own failings and deflect attention away from its human rights abuses.’ It also requested the global community to hold Pakistan responsible for human rights.
Recently, their so-called defence minister, Khawaja Asif, in reality, a minister with no chair except being a spokesperson for their DGISPR, accused India of being behind the protests while terming Kashmiri protestors as ‘not proper Kashmiris’ leading to a backlash from his own politicians. Even Pakistan’s human rights commission held their security forces responsible for killing hundreds of innocent and peaceful protestors. The protests refuse to end, despite application of brutal force. Kashmiris across the world are holding demonstrations in all capitals outside Pakistan’s embassies.
Khawaja Asif went on to threaten India over the decision to hold the Indus Water Treaty in abeyance. He mentioned, ‘The moment we feel that our national security — and water is part of our national security — is being threatened, we will go to war against India. Definitely.’ Earlier, in an interaction with an international journal, Pakistan’s DG ISPR had made a near similar statement. He mentioned, ‘No one should dare to stop Pakistan’s water. We hope it never comes to that, but if it does, the world will witness our response.’
Pakistan has been screaming and begging the world to push India to reverse its decision on the IWT, but to no avail. It is aware that militarily there is little it can do, especially after being battered in Sindoor. What no Pakistani leader mentions is that the inking of the treaty itself indicates that they have accepted Kashmir as a part of India and hence the treaty is between two nations.
Pakistan also approached the Court of Arbitration (CoA) in the Hague. India rejected the CoA decision claiming that CoA is illegally constituted.’ India’s stance has been firm. Pakistan must behave like a good neighbour, stop supporting terrorism on Indian soil, before New Delhi enters into negotiations on re-working the treaty on equal terms.
Pakistan’s policies of applying force to subdue its population, while exploiting its resources, in its western provinces of Baluchistan and Khyber Pakhtunkhwa, led to a rise in freedom movements leading to additional troop deployment and loss of lives of security force personnel. Unable to control the same, it accuses India for being behind them. Interestingly, while accusing India, it bombs Afghanistan.
Pakistan claims India is funding these movements through Afghanistan and that the Taliban provide these groups with bases. It fails to realize that these movements flourished even when India had no mission or embassy in Afghanistan. Interestingly, Afghanistan is led by the same Taliban leadership which Pakistan sheltered for over two decades. Instead of looking inwards for their own flaws in handling their neighbourhood, they blame India.
Since Pakistan began moving closer to the US as also playing a role in resolving the Iran-US conflict, its accusations against India have increased. It is hoping that the world would listen to it, now that it is on the global stage. It also believes Trump would someday announce his intention to mediate on Kashmir. Where it has failed completely is in comprehending India’s power. India’s relationships with the world are vastly different and India remains a major global entity. India is firm in its belief that J and K is an integral part of India and non-negotiable.
No nation nor institution in the past decade has offered to mediate, aware of the Indian mindset. Only few visitors to Pakistan mention resolution of Kashmir under the UN charter, while for those visiting India, Kashmir is not even on the menu as it is clearly a part of India. Pakistan attempted to equate Kashmir to Ukraine during the visit of Kaja Kallas, the EU’s High Representative for Foreign Affairs and Security Policy, to Islamabad recently. It was met with backlash from India.
Pakistan’s crying on Kashmir will have no impact at the UN. It comments, gets embarrassed, and then moves on. Yes, its accusations of India, cutting of troubled provinces from media glare as also suppressing its internal networks, has enabled it to keep its human rights abuses away from global prying eyes. Charges of human rights are raised but pressure on Pakistan to curtail them has never been enough.
For the Pak army, demanding Kashmir is justifying their existence as also silencing their domestic audiences, which questions high defence budgets and privileges provided to military personnel, while the common man suffers. At the end of the day, all that their army generals can do is play narratives, which get busted, make promises to their people, none of which they fulfil, control the nation’s politicians while looting the national exchequer, at both of which they are experts.
About the Author
Maj Gen Harsha Kakkar
Retired Major General Indian Army