KARACHI: Pakistan Peoples Party Chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari says Kashmir continues to be a threat to peace in the region because even 66 years after the United Nations Security Council adopted a resolution for a plebiscite the people of Kashmir still await the fulfilment of the promise the world made to them.

The PPP chief was addressing the concluding session of 7th Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Model United Nations attended by 1,500 student delegates. The session was held at the historic Sindh Assembly building on Sunday.

Speaker Agha Siraj Durrani welcomed the delegates, while Bakhtawar Bhutto Zardari thanked him for allowing the session to be held at the assembly where the first resolution for Pakistan had been adopted.

In today’s world power is measured by the strength of democracy, the fairness of economy and commitment to world peace, says PPP leader

In his address, Bilawal Bhutto referred to the sensitivity of the Kashmir issue and Pakistan’s experience of fighting terrorism in the region. He also dealt with problems in the Middle East, the West’s attitude to ‘The Arab Spring’ and the UN failure to deliver because the international world order was still based on the principle of the powerful being more equal than the weak.

He said: “Under the circumstances if we say that Kashmir continues to be an appalling example of the failure of the UN, rather than its success, we say it because we believe in the principles of international law, in the fairness of the international world order that was created to respect human rights, to respect the right of self-determination, and which was established to provide a just and fair world.”

He said that after the April 21, 1948, resolution, the United Nations Security Council passed another resolution unanimously on June 6, 1998, after hearing of nuclear tests conducted by India and Pakistan in May 1998. The Council condemned the tests and demanded that both countries stop testing immediately and urged countries to stop the export of nuclear materials and technology to both India and Pakistan.

“While the doors for export of equipment, materials and technology in the nuclear field remain closed on Pakistan, we see all these doors open one by one for India, once again under the watchful gaze of the UN.”

He said this consistent discrimination, against a peace-loving, democratic Muslim country, at the highest forum on the planet was unacceptable and could no longer be tolerated.

The PPP chief said that in today’s world power was measured by the strength of democracy, the fairness of economy and commitment to world peace. “The next generation will not count the number of tanks or nukes that we have. Our generation demands democratic, peaceful, prosperous and progressive Pakistan.”

He said the next generation had the answers to today’s problems. “We are the future and we will succeed where you have failed... If this generation is also cursed to repeat history I fear for the future of humankind.”

He said that during the PPP tenure, Pakistan secu­red a majority vote and got elected to the UN Security Council. “Pakistan’s voice is important and it cannot afford to go unheard again I urge the world to please listen to the people, please listen to Pakistan.”

The delegates who attended the session were students of the Shaheed Zulfikar Ali Bhutto Institute of Science and Technology.

Published in Dawn, October 13th, 2014