Face of Nation : Pakistan’s foreign minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who has been tasked with making a case against India on Kashmir at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) on Tuesday, will be speaking a little before noon in Geneva. But not only is India ready with a strong rebuttal, sources also say that the high-level official team headed by Secretary (East) in the Ministry of External Affairs, Vijay Thakur Singh, has managed to ward off other attempts such as Pakistan seeking a resolution or an urgent debate on the issue.
On Monday, Pakistani Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi, who is leading their delegation, tweeted that Pakistan will speak “definitively” at UNHRC sessions on Kashmir. He had also cited the comments of UN High Commissioner Michelle Bachelet on the issue.
In her address on Monday, Ms Bachelet said she was “deeply concerned” over the “impact of recent actions” by the Indian government on the “human rights of Kashmiris” including the detention of political leaders and activists in Jammu and Kashmir.
The Indian delegation is led by Ajay Bisaria, the High Commissioner expelled by Pakistan as part of a five-point plan to downgrade ties with India, and Vijay Thakur Singh, Secretary East.
Pakistan wrote to the United Nations last month, flagging what it called “massive violations of International Human Rights Law” in Jammu and Kashmir. But its efforts fell flat as at the closed-door meeting held at UN, the participating nations — barring China — had sided with India, agreeing that the changes in Jammu and Kashmir were an internal matter. “The letter is not worth the paper it is written on,” the foreign ministry later responded.
US President Donald Trump, who earlier offered to mediate between India and Pakistan on Kashmir, signalled a return to hands-off approach after a meeting with Prime Minister Narendra Modi last month on the sidelines of the G-7 summit in France.
