India, Pak clash on Kashmir in key UN panel

UNITED NATIONS: India and Pakistan clashed in a key United Nations committee with New Delhi firmly telling Islamabad that its advocacy for "self-determination" for people of Jammu and Kashmir is "unacceptable" and constitutes "clear interference" in the country's internal affairs.
    
The people of the state, India emphasised, have already xercised the right by participating repeatedly in free and fair elections and raking up of the issue by Pakistan was "unwarranted".
    
"The right to self-determination cannot become an instrument to promote subversion and erode political cohesion or territorial integrity" of a state, India's delegate Rajeev Shukla told the UN General Assembly's Social, Humanitarian and Cultural Committee on Monday.
    
Exercising the right of reply, he also rejected Pakistan's UN Ambassador Hussain Haroon's allegations of "suppression" of the people of state, saying Islamabad would have been better served by avoiding making comments about an integral part of India.
    
Pointing out that people of Kashmir have repeatedly participated in free and fair elections, he told Pakistan that in contrast, Islamabad denied even semblance of such rights to the people in the part of Kashmir occupied by it.
    
Clashes over Kashmir were once a regular feature of debates in the United Nations but had almost ceased during the later part of former President Pervez Musharraf's regime.

Participating in the debate on 'self-determination', Haroon alleged that "in the recent spate of violence, forced on the Kashmiris following a cruel economic blockade, the Indian occupation forces have brutally killed innocent protesters and the Kashmiri political leadership was put behind bars to silence their protest."
    
Describing the allegations as "factually incorrect," Shukla said they bear no relationship to reality.
    
It would suffice to point out that the people of Jammu and Kashmir exercised their right to "self-determination" at the time of India's independence and have since then repeatedly participated in free, fair and open elections at all levels, he added.
    
"I may add that by introducing its unwarranted reference in our discussions the delegate of Pakistan is also harming the cause of the inalienable right of the Palestinian people to self-determination," he pointed out and told Islamabad that it will never succeed in its efforts.
    
In his right of reply, Haroon claimed that Jammu and Kashmir is an "internationally recognised disputed territory" according to several UN Resolutions. "The Security Council demand for free and fair plebiscite under UN auspices still remains to be implemented."
    
He claimed that elections in Jammu and Kashmir have been "rejected not only by the UN Security Council but also by the people of Kashmir."

Shukla said that the right to "self-determination" cannot be "abused" to encourage secession and undermine pluralistic and democratic states.
    
There is no room, he said, for self-determination to be "distorted and misinterpreted as a right of a group on the basis of ethnicity, religion or religious criteria or any other such categorisation and thus use it to attempt to undermine the sovereignty and territorial integrity of a state."
    
On its part, India looks forward to the continuation and deepening of a constructive bilateral dialogue with Pakistan and to a "profound transformation of our bilateral relations, so that our two countries can work together on our shared objectives of peace, prosperity and security," he added.
    
Pakistan, Haroon said, is pursuing a composite dialogue process with India to resolve all outstanding problems, including the "core" issue of Jammu and Kashmir. A number of confidence building measures (CBMs) are on the table and some are in place.
    
"We... must seize the opportunity provided by the process of the ongoing dialogue to enhance the search for a negotiated settlement of the Jammu and Kashmir issue, emphasising the full involvement of the Kashmiri people," he said.