Pakistan has once again put India in its right place as the diplomats of the two countries clashed during a debate on rule of law in United Nations Security Council in New York, reported 24NewsHD TV channel on Tuesday.
While addressing the UN Security Council, India Permanent Representative Parvathaneni Harish accused Pakistan of spreading falsehoods, sponsoring terrorism, violating the Indus Waters Treaty, and repeatedly violating international commitments.
Harish said he was replying to “the comments of the representative of Pakistan, an elected member of the Security Council, which has a single-point agenda to harm my country and my people."
Referring to the April 2025 attack in Pahalgam, Harish told the Council, “Pakistan-sponsored terrorists killed 26 innocent civilians in a brutal attack."
He stressed that India’s response was limited and targeted. “India’s actions were measured, non-escalatory and responsible, and focused on dismantling the terrorist infrastructure and disabling terrorists," he said.
He said that India would do “whatever is required to protect and ensure the safety and security of our citizens."
On the Indus Waters Treaty, he said India had signed the agreement “65 years ago in good faith, in a spirit of goodwill and friendship," but accused Pakistan of undermining it through conflict and terrorism. India was therefore compelled to place the treaty in abeyance, he said.
Using right of reply to Indian envoy’s statement in the UN Security Council, First Secretary at the Pakistan UN Mission Zulfiqar Ali warned that Islamabad will counter Delhi’s water terrorism, with the same resolve, clarity and success with which its Armed Forces defended the motherland against India’s aggression in May last year,
Following is the text of First Secretary Zulfiqar Ali’s response:
“My delegation is availing of its right of reply to respond to spurious claim made by India in its statement.
It is an old ploy in India’s playbook to level preposterous calumnies against Pakistan to deflect criticism from its illegal occupation of Jammu and Kashmir. Jammu and Kashmir has never been a part of India; it never will be. As per UNSC resolutions, Jammu and Kashmir is a disputed territory pending a final resolution. India brought Kashmir Dispute to the United Nations, made solemn pledges in this august organisation, most significantly, with the Kashmiris, for a UN-supervised plebiscite in the disputed territory. It now stubbornly refuses to honour its international obligations and remains in violation of international law and relevant Security Council resolutions. This is the abuse of sanctity of Security Council which deserves strongest condemnation.
Sermons on law, justice and fairness ring hollow, in fact comical, from a country which is peddler of lies, planner of global assassination campaigns and a plotter of terrorism in the region and beyond. So much so it doesn’t even shirk from politicizing a field as innocuous as that of sports.
At the same time, by unilaterally and illegally suspending Indus Waters Treaty, India now attempts to effect desertification of the ancient fertile plains of Pakistan. We would counter this latest provocation, this water terrorism, with the same resolve, clarity and success with which we defended our country against India’s aggression in May last year.
India represents a classic case study of how tyranny of majoritarianism can disrupt social fabric of a political entity. Sham claims of being world’s largest democracy cannot belie state-sanctioned pogroms led by Hindu extremist organizations against Muslims, Christians, Sikhs and other minorities in India.
Instead of belligerence against Pakistan, robbing Kashmiris of their inalienable right of self-determination and ghettoization of its minorities, India is advised to fulfil its international legal obligations by implementing UNSC resolutions on Jammu and Kashmir, end the repression and systematic grave violations of human rights of the Kashmiris, mollify its ethnic minorities, and pursue a path of dialogue and diplomacy, for an environment of peace and stability, for a better future and prosperity for billions in our region.