11091959  Letter Dated 11 September, 1959 from the Acting Permanent Representative of Pakistan A. Shahi Addressed to the President of the Security Council

  Letter Dated 11 September, 1959 from the Acting Permanent Representative of Pakistan A. Shahi Addressed to the President of the Security Council

1. Under instructions from my Government, I have the honour to refer to the letter dated 7 August 1959, issued as Security Council document S/4202, from the Permanent Re presentative of India regarding the Mangla Dam Project in Kashmir.

2. It will be recalled that this question was raised by the Permanent Representative of India on 21 August 1957 and became the subject of subsequent correspondence on both sides. The correct position, set forth in our letters dated 3 October 1957 (document S/3896) and 23 January 1958 (document S/3943), is that the Mangla Dam Project is being executed as a joint venture of the Government of Azad Kashmir and the Government of Pakistan for the mutual benefit of the people of Azad Kashmir and Pakistan. The project is designed to provide and enlarge irrigation and hydro-electric facilities for a considerable area and vastly to improve the economic. condition of the people living there. It is evident that the co operation of two parties in a scheme of such mutually beneficial nature does not imply assertion of authority by one ovre the other.

3. In his letter under reply, the Permanent Representative of India has stated that "on its own admission, as recorded by the United Nations Commission in its report and its resolutions of 13 August 1948, the Government of Pakistan commit ted aggression on the Indian Union territory of Jammu and Kashmir." Neither my Government nor the United Nations as a whole is aware of any such admission. On the contrary, the Government of Pakistan showed at the very inception of of the dispute that the so-called accession of the State of Jammu and Kashmir was fraudulent and illegal and that this illegal accession cannot make the territory of the State of Jammu and Kashmir a part of the Indian Union. The United Nations resolutions, which both India and Pakistan have accepted, laid down clearly that the future status of the State shall be decided by a free and impartial plebiscite. The assumption that Jammu and Kashmir State is Indian territory is, therefore, wholly unwarranted.

4. I request that this commutation may kindly be circulated as a Security Council document and brought to the notice of the members of the Security Council.

5. Please accept, etc.

(Signed) A. SHAHI Acting Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the United Nations

(Source: UN Document no. S/4219).