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Express Tribune
25-05-2025
- Politics
- Express Tribune
Pakistan slams India for trying to impede water flow
Listen to article A senior Pakistani diplomat has denounced India's "malevolent designs" to impede the flow of water guaranteed to Pakistan under the 1960 Indus Waters Treaty and called on New Delhi to refrain from stopping, diverting or restricting rivers going downstream. "We will never accept any such moves," Ambassador Usman Jadoon, deputy permanent representative of Pakistan, told a UNSC meeting held under the format named after a former Venezuelan Ambassador to the UN, Diego Arriva, while highlighting India's attempt to weaponize water. Arria Formula meetings are informal that enable Security Council members to have a frank and private exchange of views on relevant subjects. Friday's meeting of the 15-member Council on 'Protecting Water in Armed Conflict' was convened by Slovenia, in cooperation with Algeria, Panama, Sierra Leone, and the Global Alliance to Spare Water from Armed Conflicts. Opening the debate, Slovenia's State Secretary Melita Gabric emphasized the critical role that protecting water and related infrastructure during armed conflicts plays in safeguarding civilian lives, saying, "protection of civilians and civilian objects under international humanitarian law is non-negotiable." In his remarks, the Pakistani envoy pointed out that attacks against water resources, related infrastructure, and denial of access to these resources constitute a flagrant violation of established norms, and widely accepted principles, noting that the UNSC too has also reaffirmed these principles and strongly condemned the unlawful denial of such access and depriving civilians of objects indispensable to their survival.
Express Tribune
05-04-2025
- Politics
- Express Tribune
Pakistan takes up arms flows to TTP, BLA at UNSC
A Pakistani diplomat has called for concerted efforts to intercept clandestine flows of modern and sophisticated weapons that support UN-sanctioned armed groups such as Tehreek-e-Taliban Pakistan (TTP), the Baloch Liberation Army (BLA) and its Majeed Brigade who, he said, use safe havens in Afghanistan to launch deadly cross-border attacks inside Pakistan. "Terrorist armed groups are in possession of billions worth of illicit arms abandoned in Afghanistan," Syed Atif Raza, a counselor at the Pakistan Mission to the United Nations, told an Arria-Formua meeting of the UN Security Council, convened by Sierra Leone. This format of Council's meeting is named after a former Venezuelan Ambassador to the UN, Diego Arriva. It is a consultation process which affords members of the Security Council the opportunity to hear persons in an informal setting. Speaking in a debate on 'Small Arms and Light Weapons Management in UN Sanctions Regimes', the Pakistani delegate said such armament was being used by TTP and BLA terrorists in violence against civilians and armed forces of Pakistan. "These terrorist entities also receive external support and financing from our principal adversary," Counselor Raza said in an obvious reference to India. "We call upon our international partners to recover the vast stockpile of abandoned weapons, prevent their access to armed terrorist groups and take measures to close this thriving black market of illicit arms." The misuse and illicit flow of small arms and light weapons aggravates conflicts, threatens socio-economic progress and subverts peace and security, he said, pointing out that they have become instruments of choice for state and non-state actors. He said that these concerns were further compounded with increasing sophistication of illicit arms and access to modernized weapons at the disposal of illegal armed groups often operating across national boundaries. "We know that non-state actors do not have many of the capabilities to manufacture advanced illicit arms, thus raising questions of culpability of certain state actors in these nefarious activities," the Pakistani delegate added.
