UNITED NATIONS: Pakistan has called on the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) to act on its resolutions that guarantee the Kashmiri people’s right to self-determination. The country advocates for a UN-supervised plebiscite as a means to resolve the long-standing Kashmir conflict.
“It is the responsibility of this Council to ensure the realisation of that right for the Kashmiri people, and promote a just and lasting settlement of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute, by taking measures to implement its own resolutions,” said Minister of State on Foreign Affairs Tariq Fatemi.
His remarks came during a high-level Council debate on “Maintenance of International Peace and Security: Advancing Adaptability in UN Peace Operations — Responding to New Realities”.
He emphasized the importance of tackling the underlying issues behind the conflicts in order to achieve lasting peace. He mentioned that Islamabad was set to host the UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP), founded in 1949 to oversee the ceasefire along the Line of Control (LoC) in the contested Kashmir region.
The minister also underscored the country’s long association with UN peacekeeping operations, as one of the longest-serving and leading troop contributors and a founding member of the UN Peacebuilding Commission.
Fatemi highlighted that Pakistan deployed 235,000 peacekeepers in 48 Missions across the globe and that 181 Pakistani peacekeepers paid the ultimate sacrifice in the service of international peace and security.
More than 3,267 Pakistani men and women are proudly serving in blue helmets in seven Missions today, he added.
Noting that Pakistan was hosting the UN Peacekeeping Ministerial preparatory meeting in Islamabad from April 15 to April 16, the SAPM also tabled multiple proposals with regard to the challenges confronting UN peacekeeping operations.
Urging the UNSC to unified and consistent support to all UN Peace Operations to ensure the effective implementation of their mandates, Fatemi called for tailoring of peace missions’ mandates according to the ground realities.
He also suggested the deployment of peacekeeping operations in support of clearly identified political objectives, with the primacy of political solutions for the resolution of conflicts.
Stressing the need to ensure that commensurate resources were placed at the disposal of peacekeepers to perform their mandates, the minister said that it was necessary to provision appropriate training to peacekeepers with modern equipment to deal with the threat posed by the weaponisation of technologies.
Lastly, the SAPM called for making peace operations art of a peace continuum approach, with proactive and systematic engagement with the Peacebuilding Commission
