Pakistan has called on the United Nations Security Council to implement its own resolutions promising the Kashmiri people the right to self-determination through a UN-supervised plebiscite aimed at resolving the decades-old Kashmir dispute.  In this regard, Syed Tariq Fatemi, Special Assistant to Prime Minister/Minister of State (Foreign Affairs), said that Pakistan is host to the UN Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) that was established in 1949 to monitor the ceasefire along the Line of Control (LoC) in the disputed Kashmir region. 

Fatemi was speaking in a high-level Council debate on ‘Maintenance of International Peace and Security: Advancing Adaptability in UN Peace Operations – Responding to New Realities” at United Nations in New York on Monday.  Fatemi reminded the Security members that the Kashmir dispute awaits a just and final settlement in accordance with the relevant resolutions that promised to the Kashmiri people the right to self-determination through a UN-supervised plebiscite.

“It is the responsibility of this Council to ensure the realization 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,” the foreign affairs state minister said.  “As others have stated, it is important to address the root causes of the conflicts to establish durable peace.”  Pakistan, he said, has a 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. 

Pakistan has, over the years, deployed 235,000 peacekeepers in 48 Missions across the globe, Fatemi told the 15-member Council. One hundred and eighty one Pakistani peacekeepers have 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 7 Missions today, he said. 

In his comments, Fatemi the following proposals to deal with the challenges confronting UN peacekeeping operations, urging the Security Council to: Provide unified and consistent support to all UN Peace Operations to ensure effective implementation of their mandates;  — Tailor the mandates of missions according to the realities on the ground– clear, focused, realistic and achievable;  — Deploy peacekeeping operations in support of clearly identified political objectives, with the primacy of political solutions for the resolution of conflicts.

Ensure that commensurate resources are placed at the disposal of peacekeepers to perform their mandates, as increasingly, the missions are asked to do more with less;  — Ensure appropriate training to peacekeepers with modern equipment to to deal with the threat posed by weaponization of technologies; and,  — Make Peace Operations part of a peace continuum approach, with proactive and systematic engagement with the Peacebuilding Commission. 

Pakistan, Fatemi said, also remains closely engaged at the policy and conceptual level in responding to the evolution of UN Peacekeeping.  In this regard, he said, Pakistan is hosting the UN Peacekeeping Ministerial preparatory meeting in Islamabad next month from 15-16 April, whose outcomes would feed into the ongoing deliberations on the future of UN Peace Operations.

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)