(Image source from: Livemint)

Only China Backed Pakistan at UNSC Meeting on Kashmir: Report:- A major Pakistani newspaper on Friday commented that the United Nations Security Council does not seem to favor Islamabad as the UNSC discussed India’s revocation of the special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

At the UNSC, only China was “openly favoring” Pakistan. The UN Security Council on Friday held behind closed doors meeting for talking about Kashmir issue after India revoked Article 370, that granted special status to Jammu and Kashmir further triggering a fresh row with Pakistan.

The meeting took place with only 10 non-permanent and five permanent members attending it. India has categorically told the international community that its decision to revoke Article 370 was an internal matter and has also called on Pakistan to accept the reality.

Reporting from the UN headquarters, Pakistani newspaper Dawn noted that the country's UN diplomat Maleeha Lodhi and her team have been with great effort working since early this month to sensitize the UN members on how India's decision to revoke Kashmir's special status threatens South Asia's peace and stability. "But the council's current composition does not seem to favor Pakistan," it commented.  

Friday's consultative meeting was called by China, Pakistan's all-weather ally, on Islamabad's request to talk about the prevailing situation in Jammu and Kashmir. "Only one of the five permanent members, China, openly favors Pakistan," the Dawn report noted.

“The remaining four permanent members France, Britain, Russia, and the United States want India and Pakistan to address the Kashmir dispute in a bilateral set-up,” it said. While India too favors this position, New Delhi refused to hold any talk on Kashmir, as it called the Kashmir issue an internal matter, the report said.

The 10 non-permanent members who are elected for a two-year term by the UN General Assembly are Cote d'Ivoire, Belgium, Equatorial Guinea, Dominican Republic, Indonesia, Germany, Kuwait, Peru, Poland, and South Africa. While two of them Indonesia and Kuwait have sympathized with Pakistan in the past, it will be challenging to persuade others to back the Chinese request, according to the report by Dawn.

In the meantime, The News International newspaper noted that though the Pakistan government was going all out to garner support globally, the reactions and responses received from the Organization of Islamic Cooperation (OIC) and the Muslim nations individually are a bit weak.

The article in the newspaper noted that the nearly 50-year-old OIC has issued few statements studded with diplomatic jargon sans any conviction seemingly.

“The Indian trade and business prowess within the OIC member states is relatively too large to be ignored by its trading partners none of whom is currently paying any heed to Pakistan's pleas,” it said.

By Sowmya Sangam