Letter dated 2 July 1968 from the representative of Pakistan A. Shahi to the President of the Security. Council

 Letter dated 2 July 1968 from the representative of Pakistan A. Shahi to the President of the Security. Council

Under instructions from the Government of Pakistan, I have the honour to refer to the letter dated 12 March 1968 [S/8456], from the Permanent Representative of India to the United Nations. I regret that the Permanent Representative of India has failed to appreciate the point made in my communication dated 7 February 1968 [S/8388] that:

"If the Government of India's offer of negotiations.. is to be treated as genuine, then it is imperative that India abandon the claim of domestic jurisdiction in respect of acts which are designed to preclude a just and honourable. settlement and which have so far served only to exacerbate tension and prevent negotiations."

This is in accord with the incontestable principle that, on matters affecting international peace and security, and connected with a situation which has been, and is, on the agenda of the Security Council, the plea of domestic jurisdiction is untenable. To say, as the Permanent Representative of India. does, that this amounts to insistence on India abandoning its jurisdiction in one of its constituent States, as a precondition to talks, is an obvious misinterpretation.

The State of Jammu and Kashmir is not a constituent State of India. It is a territory whose status is in dispute. The framework for a solution of this dispute is embodied in the resolutions of the United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan adopted on 13 August 1948 and 5 January 1949 and accepted by both Governments. They constitute the international agreement on the question which cannot be unilaterally repudiated.

Pakistan has accepted all the proposals made by the Security Council for the implementation of this agreement. It has further agreed to arbitration on questions where differences arose with regard to the withdrawal of the troops of both parties. India has rejected all these proposals as well as the offer of arbitration.

My Government urges nothing more than that this attitude of blocking a just and honourable settlement, and even of denying the very existence of the dispute, be abandoned if the two countries have to progress towards establishing relations based on mutual respect and good-neighborliness. It asks for nothing more than a genuinely co-operative and realistic approach from the Government of India.

I would be grateful if this letter is circulated as a Security Council document.

(Signed) A. SHAHI

Permanent Representative of Pakistan to the United Nations

(Source: UN Document No. S/8670).