NEW YORK ( MEDIA REPORTS )
The United Nations Security Council will is expected to hold a session to discuss the occupied Kashmir dispute on Friday, Radio Pakistan reported, as China also backed Pakistan’s request.
Pakistan drew the attention of the UNSC presidency to the grave threat to peace and security in South Asia after India annexed occupied Kashmir and called for summoning an emergency meeting of the council to discuss the rapidly aggravating situation. Dawn reported.
Quoting diplomatic sources, Radio Pakistan on Thursday reported that the Kashmir dispute would be discussed tomorrow under the agenda item ‘Pakistan-India question’.
The same was confirmed in a report by Geo News, which quoted UNSC president Joanna Wronecka as saying: “The UNSC will discuss the Jammu and Kashmir situation behind closed doors most likely on August 16.”
The UNSC president, in response to a question, was quoted as saying that the session will “most probably” be on Friday as the UNSC would not operate on Thursday.
The development comes a day after China also backed Pakistan’s request for the international body to discuss India’s move and asked the UNSC on Wednesday to meet behind closed doors, diplomats said.
However, France responded to the request by proposing that the council discuss the issue in a less formal manner — known as “any other business” — next week, diplomats said. Reuters reported that it would be up to Poland, president of the council for August, to mediate an agreed time and format among the 15 members.
Radio Pakistan reported that the last time occupied Kashmir found a reference in the UNSC was the UN Security Council Resolution 1172 in 1998 after Pakistan had conducted nuclear tests.
In a statement issued on Tuesday night, Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi said that he had written a letter to the UNSC president, asking the latter to convene an emergency meeting of the council to discuss India’s “illegal actions” that also “violate UN resolutions on Kashmir”.
In a post shared on Twitter, Prime Minister Imran Khan once again questioned the international community’s silence on Indian-occupied Kashmir and warned that should ethnic cleansing of Muslims take place in the region, there would be severe repercussions in the Muslim world.