Leaders demand UN-supervised plebiscite to decide Kashmir’s future on Self-Determination Day

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Sunday marked Jan 5 as Right to Self-Determination Day, with the country’s top leadership renewing demands for the implementation of United Nations resolutions and a UN-supervised plebiscite to decide the future of Jammu and Kashmir.

In separate messages, President Asif Ali Zardari, Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti, and the president and prime minister of Azad Jammu and Kashmir reaffirmed Pakistan’s moral, political and diplomatic backing for the Kashmiri people. They also urged the international community to compel India to roll back its unilateral steps taken on Aug 5, 2019.

President Zardari said the observance of Jan 5 symbolised solidarity with the people of Jammu and Kashmir and commemorated the 1949 UN resolution that acknowledged the disputed nature of the territory and guaranteed Kashmiris the right to determine their destiny through a free and impartial plebiscite.

He said that despite the passage of more than seventy years, the UN’s commitment remained unrealised. The president added that time had neither eroded the legal standing of UN resolutions nor weakened the Kashmiri people’s claim to self-determination, describing the continued denial of this right as a breach of international law and the UN Charter.

Peace in South Asia

Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif said a fair and lasting settlement of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute was indispensable for enduring peace in South Asia.

Calling on the global community to act, he urged India to end what he described as serious human rights violations in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), revoke its Aug 5, 2019 measures, repeal repressive laws and allow Kashmiris to exercise their right to self-determination in line with UN Security Council resolutions.

The prime minister reiterated that Pakistan would continue to raise the Kashmiri cause at all international forums and extend consistent moral, political and diplomatic support to the Kashmiri people.

International obligation

Balochistan Chief Minister Sarfraz Bugti said Right to Self-Determination Day underscored that the Kashmiri struggle was grounded in international law, not political rhetoric. He said the right promised to Kashmiris through UN Security Council resolutions remained unimplemented.

Recalling the resolution adopted by the United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan on Jan 5, 1949, he said it explicitly guaranteed a free, fair and impartial plebiscite — a pledge he said had been undermined by India’s continued occupation and refusal to comply with international commitments.

Azad Jammu and Kashmir President Barrister Sultan Mahmood Chaudhry, in his message, urged the United Nations to take a more proactive role in resolving the dispute in accordance with the wishes of the Kashmiri people. He said Kashmiris had made immense sacrifices for a right that was recognised by the UN itself.

He added that the people of Kashmir viewed the former princely state as a single, indivisible entity and said decades of coercion had failed to extinguish their demand for freedom.

Separately, AJK Prime Minister Faisal Mumtaz Rathore called on the United Nations to fulfil its moral and legal responsibilities, expressing regret that a commitment made more than seven decades ago remained pending.

He said the holding of a plebiscite, as outlined in the UN framework, was central to resolving the dispute and remained an obligation of the international community.