India on Wednesday delivered a stern message to Pakistan from the platform of the United Nations as it said the neighbouring country must put its own house in order before accusing India of human rights violation. Speaking at the UN session on human rights, ministry of external affairs under secretary Jagpreet Kaur said Pakistan’s focus has been preaching to the world what is right and wrong while its population is denied democracy. “We advise Pakistan to put its own house in order and focus on improving its abysmal record of promotion and protection of human rights of its own population,” Jagpreet Kaur said rejecting the Organisation of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) statement.
The response comes as Pakistan foreign minister Bilawal Bhutto Zardari referred to Jammu and Kashmir as “occupied” and India strongly objected to it. At the UN Security Council open debate on Women, Peace and Security, India’s Permanent Representative to the UN Ambassador Ruchira Kamboj on Tuesday said India considers it unworthy to even respond to such malicious and false propaganda.
At Wednesday’s human rights session, India said it is ironical that Pakistan’s own institutions, legislations and policies over the course of seven decades have denied its population and the people in the territories under its control these truths and obliterated their hope of true democracy and freedom, equality, tolerance and social justice.
“While Pakistan masquerades as the champion of human rights, its top leadership has in the past openly acknowledged creating terrorist groups, training them to fight in Afghanistan and the Indian Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir,” Jagpreet Kaur said.
“Christians, Hindus, Sikhs, Ahmadiyyas and Hazaras Shias have been targeted by blasphemy laws that carry draconian penalties, including mandatory death sentences,” Kaur added.
“We reject the factually incorrect and unwarranted references to India in the OIC statement. The entire territory of Union Territories of Jammu Kashmir and Ladakh is an integral and inalienable part of India,” Kaur said.
“Mr President, India is exercising its right of reply in response to the statement delivered by Pakistan. We once again heard the representative of Pakistan wax eloquent on so-called human rights violations in India. At the outset, we deny these baseless allegations. Pakistan’s entire focus… has been about preaching to the world about right and wrong, truths and untruths and hope and despair,” Kaur said.
Pakistan’s policies to aid and abet terrorism have been responsible for the violation of human rights in the entire world, India said adding that it is not surprising that now Pakistan is a victim of its own malevolent state policies of nurturing terror organisations.
Source- Hindustan Times.
