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UNITED NATIONS, Jan 21 (APP):As UN member states begin preparations to draft an international treaty aimed at preventing Crimes against Humanity, Pakistan Tuesday drew attention to the criminal offenses being committed against innocent people in occupied Kashmir and Palestine.
“Crimes against Humanity are one of the gravest offenses,” Pakistani delegate Zulfiqar Ali told a meeting of the Preparatory Committee for the UN Conference on prevention and punishment of such crimes.
“No act is more sacrilegious than committing criminal offenses against innocent people,” he pointed out.
“It is with great sadness and indignation that we see these crimes committed against the innocent people in different parts of the world, including in the Occupied Jammu and Kashmir and Occupied Palestinian Territories,” said Zulfiqar Ali, a first secretary in the Pakistan Mission to the UN.
“Instead of addressing historic injustices meted out to the oppressed peoples, their dreams and hopes for a dignified future are trampled on by brute force and violence,” he added.
Pakistan, Ali said, unequivocally condemns these crimes, and backed the calls for eliminating impunity for them.
“Indeed, it is only by holding perpetrators accountable that we can take a meaningful and concrete step for restoring the honour and dignity of victims.”
He described International Law Commission’s draft articles for the treaty a “useful starting point” , but stressed that those on the prevention and punishment of crimes against humanity – specifically for crimes such as enslavement, torture, and enforced disappearance – must align with those enshrined in the corresponding UN conventions.
Pakistan, he added, hopes that the Preparatory Committee would be able to harmonize differing perspectives to ensure that forthcoming Convention is widely embraced by the international community, especially States which are not party to the Rome Statute of the International Criminal Court (ICC).
The Pakistani delegate’s sharp remarks about the situation in Indian occupied Kashmir evoked a response from an Indian representative.
Luther Rangerji , legal adviser at the Indian External Affairs Ministry, claimed Pakistan has no locus standi on Kashmir, as he said it is part of India.
He also claimed that Pakistan uses the Jammu and Kashmir issue to divert attention from its treatment of minorities.
Zulifiqar Ali, the Pakistani delegate, hit back, saying India violated Pakistan’s sovereignty by attacking civilians, including children who are blinded by pellet guns. New Delhi is also not implementing Security Council resolutions on Jammu and Kashmir, and violates the Indus Water Treaty.
“The ?World needs no lectures on crimes against humanity from a country that is a serial violator of international law and the UN Charter and a perpetrator of atrocity crimes – in occupied Jammu and Kashmir, against minorities in India, against civilians it targets through sponsorship of cross-border terrorist attacks.”
India, he said, is colluding with terrorist organizations to subvert and spread chaos in its neighbouring countries and running international assassination campaigns against political dissidents with impunity.
“Due to an unholy nexus between extremist Hindutva ideology and ruling elite, Indian minorities, particularly Muslims, are facing an imminent threat of ghettoization.”
Rejecting the assertion that Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of India, he said that the State is a disputed territory under the term of UN Security Council resolutions pending a final solution.
“Right of self-determination is the birthright right of the Kashmiris as per UN Charter— a right which India solemnly promised to the Kashmiris and is yet stubbornly denying it in flagrant violation of UNSC resolutions.”
Pakistan, he said, would continue to extend political and moral support to the freedom struggle of Kashmiri people, and to call for holding a UN-supervised plebiscite in Jammu and Kashmir.