20011958 Letter dated 20 January 1958 from the representative of India Arthur S. Lall to the President of the Security Council
Letter dated 20 January 1958 from the representative of India Arthur S. Lall to the President of the Security Council
1. I have the honour to invite your Excellency's attention to my letter dated 21 August 1957 [S/3869] and to a further violation by the Government of Pakistan of the sovereignty of the Union of India and of its territory in Jammu and Kashmir and a violation of the resolution of the Security Council of 17 January 1948. This violation was reported in the Dawn newspaper of Karachi on 24 December 1957, as reproduced below:
"MANGLA DAM CONSTRUCTION
"Contract with United Kingdom firm signed
"The Government of Pakistan yesterday signed an agreement with M/S Binnie, Deacon and Gourley of London, for engineering the multi-purpose Mangla Dam Project. This firm of consulting engineers will be assisted by M/S Harza Engineering Co., of the United States of America, on civil works and by M/S Preece, Cardew and Rider of the United Kingdom on the electrical side.
"The consulting engineers will render the services: (a) Devpment of preliminary reports; (b) preparation of drawings and other documents relating to works, plant and equipment for calling tenders on a worldwide basis; (c) general supervision of works during the construction stage; and (d) training of Pakistani staff in maintaining and operating the plant and for testing the structure and the permanent equipment.
"The Government laid great emphasis in the contract on the training of Pakistan technical staff in all phases of the project. "The multi-purpose Mangla Dam Project envisages impounding of 3.5 million acre feet of water which would be used for reclamation of salt-affected areas and producing 300,000 kilowatts of electric power. The dam will also control floods in the river Jhelum.
"It is hoped that it will now be possible to complete the project within ten years. This project is one of the biggest of its kind in the East."
2. I would particularly invite attention to the emphasis laid in the contract on the training of Pakistani technical staff in all phases of the project, and the reference to "reclamation of salt-affected areas", which exist not in Jammu and Kashmir but in West Pakistan. Thus, for its own benefit, Pakistan has now taken further steps to exploit the people and resources of the territory of the Union of India which it continues to occupy by force in defiance of the Security Council resolution of 17 January 1948 and the resolutions of the United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan of 13 August 1948 and. 5 January 1949, all of which have been accepted by Pakistan.
3. As pointed out in my last letter and as disclosed at length by the representative of India in the recent debate in the Security Council on Kashmir, Pakistan is forging ahead with the construction of this project it the teeth of opposition from the people in the area who are nationals of India. The details of the protest meetings and of the joint appeal by five political parties in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir to the members of the Pakistan National Assembly protesting against the construction of the dam were given by the representative of India in the Security Council on 9 October 1957.
4. Pakistan has no rights in the Indian Union territory which it has forcibly occupied and which it is required to vacate under the resolution of the United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan. Pakistan continues to consolidate its position to the disadvantage of the State of Jammu and Kashmir, contrary to the categorical assurances which the United Nations Commission gave to the Prime Minister of India on behalf of the Security Council. 5. The engineering firms who are undertaking the execution of the project come from the United Kingdom and the United States of America, two permanent member countries of the Security Council.
6. I request that this communication may kindly be circulated as a Security Council document and be brought to the notice of the members of the Security Council.
(Signed) Arthur S. LALL
Ambassador Extraordinary and Plenipotentiary,
Permanent Representative of India
to the United Nations
(Source: UN Document no. S/3939)