*The Permanent Mission of Pakistan to the United Nations*
*(Information Section)*
*****
*Press Release*
*From Gaza to Kashmir: Pakistan Calls on UN to Uphold the Right to Self-Determination*
*United Nations, October 7, 2025:* Declaring that the unfinished task of decolonization remains “a test of the international community’s conscience,” Pakistan told the UN that the people of Jammu and Kashmir and Palestine continue to live under foreign occupation – a grave betrayal of the principles on which the United Nations was founded.
Addressing the Special Political and Decolonization Committee of the 80th Session of the General Assembly, Ambassador Asim Iftikhar Ahmad, Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the UN, reiterated that the right to self-determination is the cornerstone of the UN Charter and must be realized for all peoples still denied their freedom.
Turning to Jammu and Kashmir, he underscored that the denial of self-determination to the Kashmiri people constitutes one of the oldest unresolved items of the UN agenda, and that the Security Council resolutions regarding the dispute remain valid and binding. “The final disposition of Jammu and Kashmir must be decided through a free and impartial plebiscite under UN auspices, in accordance with the wishes of the Kashmiri people,” he emphasized.
“For more than seven decades, India has evaded its obligations through repression, deception, and brute force,” he reinforced.
Reminding that with 900,000 troops deployed, IIOJK has become heavily militarized, marked by “extrajudicial killings, enforced disappearances, torture, arbitrary detentions, and collective punishment,”– a result of India’s illegal and unilateral actions as of 5 August 2019, where it sought to annex the disputed territory in violation of UNSC resolutions.
He cautioned that the neighboring nation’s settler-colonial agenda aims to alter the territory’s demographic composition in open defiance of international law and the UN charter – describing these actions as “part of a wider enterprise driven by extremist Hindutva ideology, rooted in religious intolerance and exclusion.”
Lauding the resilience of the Kashmiri people who “continue their courageous struggle for freedom,” the Ambassador underlined that durable peace in South Asia cannot be achieved without the resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute.
“Peace cannot be built on injustice and denial of rights,” he stated.
Focusing on the ongoing Gaza tragedy, he condemned the continuing humanitarian catastrophe in Gaza, where entire communities have been reduced to rubble and women and children brazenly killed. These, he stressed, “are not collateral tragedies but deliberate crimes” committed in defiance of international humanitarian law. “Occupation must end,” he declared, “for it remains the root cause of regional instability.”
“Words do not suffice to describe the gravity of the situation,” he declared.
Welcoming recent consultations led by U.S. President Donald Trump with Arab and OIC leaders, he expressed hope for the realization of a credible political pathway toward Palestinian statehood and lasting peace in the region. Reaffirming Pakistan’s stance for an independent, viable, and contiguous State of Palestine, based on pre-1967 borders, with Al-Quds Al-Sharif as its capital.
He stressed that peace cannot coexist with occupation, nor justice with impunity, and reaffirmed Pakistan’s commitment to upholding the Charter’s fundamental purpose and “champion the unfinished agenda of decolonization.” The struggles of Palestine and Kashmir stand as enduring reminders that freedom denied is freedom diminished.
“The international community cannot allow colonialism in any form to persist in the 21st century,” he concluded.