Pakistan rejects what India has said in UNGA

Pakistan today rejected all the 'charges' that were levelled by the Indian Foreign Minister and one of its representatives in the United Nations. Addressing the 72nd session of the General Assembly in the United Nations (UN) today, Dr Lodhi asked the world community to stop India from violating the ceasefire in the region. She categorically rejected India's sweeping allegations about Pakistan's involvement in terrorist acts, and cited instances of the Indian sponsorship of terrorism and aggression against all its neighbours making the country the "mother of terrorism" in South Asia.

"India has considerable experience in the state sponsorship of terrorism in our region," Ambassador Maleeha Lodhi, Pakistani permanent representative to the UN, told the UN General Assembly on Saturday, while responding to the Indian External Affairs Minister Sushma Swaraj speech in which she called Pakistan "the pre-eminent export factory for terror”. In a hard-hitting statement made in exercise of her right of reply, the Pakistani envoy denounced Ms Swaraj's statement as an "orgy of slander" against her country. "Her comments towards my country betray the hostility that the Indian leadership has towards Pakistan -- hostility we have endured for 70 years.”

She called for the implementation of relevant Security Council resolutions and for a Special UN Envoy to be appointed to ensure India's adherence to its legal obligations, adding that Pakistan was committed to openness and dialogue with India so long as it ended its campaign of subversion. Rejecting the Indian minister's claim that UN Security Council resolutions had been "overtaken," she said, "Law has no expiry date. Morality has no sell-by date." India, she said, now also refuses a bilateral dialogue with Pakistan, either composite or comprehensive, saying there must be an end of violence.