Islamabad, Oct 18 (TNS): Chairman Senate Standing Committee on Interior and former Interior Minister Senator A. Rehman Malik today on Friday has penned a letter to Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi urging him to take the case of continuous unprovoked cease-fire violation and targeting of civilian population by India to the United Nations General Assembly and International Court of Justice (ICJ). He has asked the Foreign Minister to request the United Nations Security Council to appoint a Special Commission to investigate all cease-fire violations by India, increase the strength of Military Observers across LoC and also file a claim of damages in terms of lives and properties in the International Court of Justice (ICJ) against India.
Senator Rehman Malik has written the letter based on the Truce Agreement signed both by Pakistan, India and United Nations which bounds the two country to implement it in letter and spirit. he said that the Truce Agreement is actually a trilateral agreement as United Nations is signatory in it and both the countries continued to make agreement regarding Line of Control but did not change the contents of ‘Truce Agreement of 1949’ and it is still in vogue.
In the letter Senator A. Rehman Malik has advised Foreign Minister Shah Mehmood Qureshi as following:
i. Proper investigation by UN Commission into the continuous unprovoked cease-fire violations and targeting of civilian population by India Armed Forces at Line of Control.
ii. Imposing Penalties on Indian Government for violation of “Truce Agreement” which was supervised / countersigned by United.
iii. Request for deployment of additional UN Military Observers at LoC to ensure an effective supervision to maintain proper control on the line of control as per the Truce Agreement of 1949.
Senator A. Rehman Malik’s letter is reproduced here as following:
Subject: FILING OF CASE IN INTERNATIONAL COURT OF JUSTICE (ICJ) FOR VIOLATIONS OF TRUCE / CEASE-FIRE AGREEMENT OF 1949 BY INDIAN ARMED FORCES.
I would like to draw your kind attention towards the violations of the “Truce Agreement” duly signed by the two parties in 1949 and the agreement was supervised/ countersigned by the United Nations Commission on India and Pakistan constituted by United Nations General Assembly (UNGA) and in this agreement both countries have signed the following declarations:-
Para B: The delegation of India and Pakistan, duly authorized have reached the following agreement:
(1) “Under the provisions of Part I of the Resolution of 13 August 1948, and as a complement of the suspension of hostilities in the State of Jammu and Kashmir on 1 January 1949, a cease-fire line is established”.
Para F: ….There shall be no increase of forces or strengthening of defences in areas where no major adjustments are involved by the determination of the cease-fire line.
2. In fact, this was the first formal ceasefire agreement signed between India and Pakistan in 1949 and was the most elaborated and well thought agreement carried out and ratified on 27 July 1949. It drew the original Ceasefire Line (CFL) between the Indian Held Kashmir and Azad Kashmir. The original Cease Fire Line (CFL) was given the name of Line of Control (LoC) after the Simla Agreement in 1972, which was bilateral agreement whereas the bilateral agreement cannot overtake the international agreement / agreement under UNGA.
3. As India and Pakistan entered into 1965 and 1971 wars and signed two new bilateral treaties (Tashkand declaration of 1966 and Simla Agreement of 1972), the Truce agreement signed in 1949 is considered as dead / redundant by India, except for the boundary lines (LoC) between Azad Kashmir and the Indian held Kashmir. Later on a new cease-fire agreement was signed in November, 2003 but it was also not taken seriously by India and it continued unprovoked firing on LoC. Unfortunately, United Nations has failed to take any action against India for breaking the initial Truce agreement as well as other agreements.
4. The National Disaster Management Authority (NDMA) had reported in National Assembly that ‘unprovoked’ Indian firing across the LoC had cost 832 lives, 3000 severe injuries, and 3,300 houses had been damaged in Azad Kashmir till June, 2017. NDMA also informed the House that 425,000 citizens are continuously under the threat of Indian unprovoked firings at LoC.
5. The plea by India to resolve the Kashmir issue bilaterally without any third-party involvement / mediation seems to have withered away by India as India is reluctant to come on the table to discuss either the Kashmir issue or implementation of the Truce Agreement. The Indian Government many times committed for a composite dialogue which also included on Kashmir but history is witness that India always avoided its commitments and it frustrated every move to resolve it in the past.
6. The above reported damage of the lives and properties in Azad Kashmir due to unprovoked cease-fire violations by Indian Armed Forces and careful examination of the “Truce agreement” of 1949 entitles Pakistan to claim from India through United Nations or taking the mater to International Court of Justice (ICJ) on the following grounds:-
i. Proper investigation by UN Commission into the continuous unprovoked cease-fire violations and targeting of civilian population by India Armed Forces at Line of Control.
ii. Imposing Penalties on Indian Government for violation of “Truce Agreement” which was supervised / countersigned by United.
iii. Request for deployment of additional UN Military Observers at LoC to ensure an effective supervision to maintain proper control on the line of control as per the Truce Agreement of 1949.
7. In view of the above I call upon you to kindly consider to move on the above lines asking UNGA to ensure implementation of” Truce Agreement” of 1949, which is still a valid agreement whereas, Simla Agreement signed in 1972 is a bilateral agreement and hence it cannot overrule the trilateral “Truce Agreement” signed between India, Pakistan and United Nations.
