Pakistan Abusing Temporary UNSC Membership, Should Uphold Responsibilities: India

United Nations, June 6 (IANS) Pakistan is abusing its temporary membership of the Security Council to peddle false narratives, and it should be mindful of its responsibilities on the body, India said on Friday.“Empty rhetoric and hollow claims by Pakistan would not change this fundamental reality” that “Jammu and Kashmir was, is and will always remain an integral and inalienable part of India,” India’s Permanent Representative P Harish said.He was responding to Pakistan’s Permanent Representative Asim Iftikhar Ahmad’s references to the Union Territory during a discussion of the Council’s Annual Report to the General Assembly.He said Pakistan was abusing its presence on the Council “through the circulation of several misinformed and misleading communications” and using “august UN platforms for their divisive political interests”.Pakistan’s two-year term as an elected member of the Council, which it has used to attack India at any turn and with no relevance to the subject on the agenda, runs out at the end of this year.“I would like to remind Pakistan that being a member of the UN Security Council is a huge responsibility. It is not a forum for peddling biased and false narratives,” Harish said.He mocked Pakistan’s illusions about the future of Kashmir.“I would like to make it loud and clear, ‘Jammu and Kashmir was, is and will always remain an integral and inalienable part of India’,” he declared. “Any assertions to the contrary are baseless, devoid of and inconsistent with historical facts,” he said. “Empty rhetoric and hollow claims by Pakistan would not change this fundamental reality”. alpgh