‘Obama cannot award permanent membership of UNSC to India’: Pak envoy to UN

KARACHI - US President Barack Obama cannot award the permanent membership of the United Nations Security Council to India, Pakistan’s Ambassador to the UN Abdullah Hussain Haroon has said.

Haroon said that voting was necessary for this purpose, and India could not become a member until all the permanent members of the council approved it, the Daily Times reported.

He said that membership of the council should rotate among all countries, and that Pakistan and many other countries had submitted proposals that the membership should be awarded on a regional basis.

Addressing a seminar on the current dynamics and the emerging views about the Indian occupation of Kashmir, he said that Kashmir had never been a part of India, nor it would be in the future.

India had illegally occupied Kashmir, Ladakh and other areas, he added.

He also said that Pakistan had presented over 100 resolutions in the UN for voting in Kashmir, but the issue was still on the UN’s agenda, and added that failure to resolve the Kashmir issue could not be termed as a failure of Pakistan’s foreign policy.

“We have no formula to force India for obeying the UN’s resolutions. We should look forward and take new lines to resolve the burning issue of Kashmir,” he said.

Mutual understanding and the presence of political will between Pakistan and India is essential in resolving the Kashmir dispute, he said, adding that Pakistani, Indian and Kashmiri representatives should initiate necessary dialogue to resolve the problem. (ANI)