UNITED NATIONS (Pakistan Point News / Sputnik - 07th August, 2019) No concrete decisions have been made on when the UN Security Council will hold a meeting to discuss the situation in Jammu and Kashmir, a diplomatic source in Pakistan's mission to the United Nations told Sputnik.
"The Ambassador [Maleena Lodhi] met with the President of the UN Security Council today, however, any concrete decisions on when the Council will hold a meeting to discuss the issue have not been taken," the source said on Tuesday.
The source said that during the meeting, Lodhi briefed council President Joanna Wronecka on the situation in the region and presented Pakistan's point of view on India's move to revoke the autonomous status of the Jammu and Kashmir state.
Pakistan's Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi in a letter sent to UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres earlier on Tuesday called on the UNSC to address the situation in the region, calling India's decision as a breach of international law.
"Given the gravity of the situation arising from the Indian actions that constitute a deliberate breach of UN Security Council resolutions and carry serious implications for peace and security in South Asia, I urge you to bring these developments to the attention of the UN Security Council," Qureshi said in the letter obtained by Sputnik.
Qureshi added that Pakistan condemned the "illegal actions" by India which "undermine" the status of Jammu and Kashmir and deny the Kashmir people's right to self-determination.
On Monday, Indian President Ram Nath Kovind ordered that Article 370 of the constitution, which had guaranteed the Jammu and Kashmir's special status since 1947, be revoked. Both houses of parliament have since supported the motion. Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan has said that his country intended to discuss the situation with Muslim minorities living in Jammu and Kashmir at the United Nations.
The Indian government now wants to split the Ladakh region from Jammu and Kashmir and grant it the status of a union territory, which means it would be directly controlled by the Federal government. The remainder of the state will become a second union territory. However, the Ladakh region will not have its own legislature, unlike Jammu and Kashmir.
Indian Ambassador to Russia Bala Venkatesh Varma said on Tuesday that India's decision to scrap the special status of Jammu and Kashmir state and reorganize it is an internal matter, which does not concern Pakistan.
India and Pakistan have contended for the Kashmir region, the southern part of which lies in India's Jammu and Kashmir state, since the end of British rule in 1947. Despite a ceasefire being reached in 2003 following several armed conflicts, instability has continued, leading to the emergence of various extremist groups. Tensions spiked earlier this year when the Indian military conducted airstrikes in the region in response to an attack orchestrated by a terrorist group based in the Pakistani side of Kashmir.
