141. Before I begin, I
must congratulate the President, Miss Angie Brooks, on her
election. This is not a mere ritual. My delegation is
particularly happy to see her preside over this Assembly
because she comes from Africa and she is only the second
woman to adorn this high office with her personal charm
and grace. Her great ability and long experience at the
United Nations is undoubtedly a guarantee of her success.
142. Let me pay a respectful tribute to her predecessor,
the late Mr.Emilio Arenales. The courage which he
displayed when stricken with a fatal disease was unforgettable.
I once again convey Pakistan's sincere sympathies to
the delegation of Guatemala at his untimely death.
143. In the General Assembly today I consider it my duty
to comment on the issues which affect Pakistan’s daily life,
its existence, its outlook and its international relationships.
144. Let me first take the economic questions.
145. Some years ago, the decade of the sixties was
designated as the First United Nations Development Decade.
Who can fail to regret that this Decade has not met its
proclaimed goal? Two thirds of the earth’s inhabitants still
live in poverty. The announced objective of transferring one
per cent of the national income of industrially advanced
nations to the developing countries still remains unrealized.
While incomes of the richer countries are growing apace,
the net flow of financial resources from them to the poorer
ones continues to decline. Recent figures illustrate that the
ratio of total net transfers to the gross national product has
receded another fraction downwards from the 1967 average
of 0.65 per cent. What is particularly deplorable is that this
should happen at the historic moment when assistance
efforts were beginning to yield results and when the
so-called absorptive capacity of the developing countries
was no longer an obstacle to such efforts.
146. This is not merely a matter of how the economics of
international assistance now operate. There is cause for
gloom in the new psychological attitude pervading the
public mind in the main aid-giving countries. No longer do
we find there the same consciousness of the necessity of
international assistance which was a stimulus to earlier
efforts. Were such a consciousness to prevail, the developing
countries would elicit a better understanding of the
crippling burden on them of debt-servicing. There would be
then greater appreciation of the fact that the servicing of
debts leaves these countries little more than half of what
was gained in the first instance.
147. One of the few initiatives of the second session of the
United Nations Conference on Trade and Development was
a plan for the developed countries to give trade preferences
to developing countries on manufactured and semi-manufactured
goods and thus help to release them from their
dependence on food and raw material exports. But this plan
is still far from execution. As a result, the gulf dividing the
rich from the poor is widening all the time.
148. The war against poverty cannot be won without a
global alliance. The time for forging that alliance is
shortening. The preparation and planning of the strategy
for the Second United Nations Development Decade will
test the possibility of such a partnership coming into being.
This strategy will call for a sustained drive on the part of
the developing countries. It will also call for political will
on the part of the developed countries to render substantial
assistance. If this will is not lacking, there should be
definite commitments of aid on a defined time scale. There
should be a new perception of the relationship between the
donor and the recipient of aid. The relationship should be
seen as based, not on charity, but on the facts of economic
interdependence and enlightened self-interest.
149. The unhappiness of the developing countries with
regard to their economic progress is aggravated by the sense
of insecurity which is assailing those of them that are
smaller and less mighty than their neighbours. Pakistan is
one of these countries.
150. Pakistan pursues an independent policy and is one of
the few countries that have established and maintain
friendly bilateral relations with the Soviet Union, the
United States and China at the same time. Had Pakistan
been aligned to any one of them, this would not have been
possible.
151. This policy of bilateralism fully conforms to the
principles of non-alignment. We oppose interference in the
internal affairs of other States, and we believe in peaceful
coexistence, respect for sovereignty, territorial integrity and
independence of all countries. We have always upheld the
right of peoples to self-determination. We have always been
ready to have recourse to procedures for pacific settlement
of disputes and for strengthening the Charter of the United
Nations.
152. Pakistan’s loyalty to the Organization is not merely
verbal. We have given tangible demonstration of it at two
crucial moments in our history and with regard to an issue
which has a direct impact on our life, our national integrity
and our destiny. In that issue — I am referring to the
India-Pakistan question — we have wholeheartedly accepted
the resolutions of the Security Council. By doing so, we
have subordinated our claims to the decisions of the world
community. We have put our trust in the strength of the
United Nations. We suffer when that trust proves to have
been entirely misplaced. We have, therefore, a stake in the
United Nations as large as that of any other Member, far
larger than that of some. Our attitude can be fully shared
only by those other Member States which are the aggrieved
parties in international disputes, seek nothing but justice,
pursue nothing but peace, but which will not suffer a
people’s right to be suppressed merely because they
themselves are relatively weak or small. It is these nations
that are acutely sensitive to the fortunes of this Organization.
They feel fortified when this Organization proves to
be resourceful. They feel betrayed when it falters and fails.
153. This brings me to the political factors which have
shaken public confidence in the United Nations. I cannot
hope, on the present occasion, to attempt an exhaustive
analysis of these factors. Suffice it to refer to those which
are interlinked and outstanding among them.
154. The first of these factors is the divergence between
the resolutions of the United Nations and the policies of
the great Powers. As a result, many a well-conceived
resolution adopted here, or in the Security Council, has
become an emblem of inaction. It is often forgotten that
the United Nations can act, rot by adopting resolutions but
by implementing them. Why do some important resolutions
remain unimplemented?
155. The answer is not only that the great powers are
divided and unable to make use of the provisions laid down
in the United Nations Charter for enforcing compliance
with the decisions of the Security Council. The answer is
also that they are reluctant to assimilate these decisions in
their own policies. Were they to make these resolutions the
cardinal principles of their policies towards the countries
concerned, their combined resources of pressure and
persuasion would not fail to ensure the fulfilment of the
decisions of the United Nations. The experience of the Suez
crisis in 1956 is an example in point. No sanctions were
applied; yet, by the combined efforts of the United States
and the Soviet Union, the Israeli forces were made to
withdraw from the territory they had overrun.
156. The second outstanding factor is that the United
Nations has failed to reflect the universality which was
inherent in its conception. That the people of China, 700
million strong, the largest single national segment of
humanity, the inheritors of one of the oldest and most
stable civilizations of the world, should remain unrepresented
in this Organization is not so much a loss to them as
it is a disability for this Organization itself. Their exclusion
from its counsels has widened the gulf between this
Organization and political realities.
157. The third factor is symbolized by the unchecked
arms race. The progress that has been achieved in the field
of disarmament has been at best fitful and sporadic. Arms
control is not only a question of the ratio between the
armouries of the great Powers. It is an issue of the security
of all nations, great or small. Many among these nations feel
a gnawing insecurity. The insecurity is not lessened when,
in an individual case, the adversary disposes of only
conventional weapons. Let us not forget that in both the
Middle East and Viet-Nam only conventional weapons have
been used. Therefore, the reduction of conventional armaments
is no less imperative than measures of nuclear arms
control and nuclear disarmament if the security of all
nations, and not only of a few, is to be strengthened.
158. Pakistan now participates in the Conference of the
Committee on Disarmament. We are thankful for our
inclusion and we pledge our sincere co-operation in all
efforts to achieve its aims.
159. The record of more than 20 years of disarmament
negotiations cannot be regarded as impressive. While certain
treaties in the nature of “non-armament” measures, and
most recently the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of
Nuclear Weapons [resolution 2373 (XXII)], have been
concluded, there has been no agreement in the field of true
disarmament. The goal of general and complete disarmament
remains as distant as ever, and agreement even on
collateral measures of disarmament is not in sight. We face
an impasse in the negotiations on a comprehensive test-ban
treaty, to which the General Assembly has attached the
greatest urgency, primarily because of a lack of political
will on the part of the super-Powers to cease nuclear-weapon
tests. In fact, such testing has been intensified in
scale and frequency in order to check out nuclear warheads
for weapons of strategic offensive and defensive warfare.
The question of cessation of underground nuclear-weapon
tests has thus become linked to that of limitation of
strategic nuclear armaments.
160. The Secretary-General’s warning in his introduction
to his annual report [A/7601/Add.1, para. 29], that the
present situation of relative stability in the nuclear strategic
balance of power between the United States and the Soviet
Union could disappear if new generations of nuclear-weapon
systems were developed and deployed, has come
not a moment too soon. We join in his appeal to the two
super-Powers to begin immediately their bilateral talks to
limit and reduce offensive and defensive strategic nuclear
weapons. We hope that these talks will lead to negotiations
in good faith among all the nuclear-weapon Powers with a
view to the cessation of the nuclear arms, race, as urged by
the Conference of Non-Nuclear-Weapon States held last
year.
161. The nuclear-weapon Powers are pledged in Article VI
of the Treaty on the Non-Proliferation of Nuclear Weapons
[resolution. 2373 (XXII)] to pursue negotiations in good
faith on effective measures relating to cessation of the
nuclear arms race at an early date and to nuclear disarmament.
The commencement of strategic arms limitation
talks, together with a complete cessation of underground
nuclear-weapon tests would, in our view, constitute an
earnest of their good faith. We fully appreciate the almost
incredible complexity of the decisions they are called upon
to make, but we fear that further loss of time may well
result in the loss of ability to fulfil this treaty obligation.
162. At this session we are called upon to carry further
the implementation of the recommendations of the Conference
of Non-Nuclear-Weapon States in the field of
peaceful uses of nuclear energy, with particular regard to
the special needs and interests of the developing countries.
One aspect of this question is the establishment of an
international régime for peaceful nuclear explosions within
the framework of the International Atomic Energy Agency.
While this régime should undoubtedly provide for access to
the technology of peaceful nuclear explosions, it is imperative
at the same time to ensure that States deriving such
benefit are prevented from utilizing the knowledge of
technology for the manufacture or acquisition otherwise of
nuclear weapons. It seems to us that a renunciation of
nuclear weapons and acceptance of the safeguards system
of the International Atomic Energy Agency under a binding
multilateral instrument should be considered a sine qua non
for access to the technology of peaceful nuclear explosions.
163. It was concern for their security in the nuclear era
that brought together the non-nuclear-weapon States in the
Conference held last year. Until existing arrangements can
be strengthened to inspire real confidence, Member States
must perforce rely on themselves. Speaking for Pakistan, let
me say that, in view of its situation, the geopolitical
compulsion is a factor which cannot be ignored in shaping
its outlook on security. An arms balance in our region,
maintained through a stable equilibrium of great Power
relationships, is of the greatest importance to peace in Asia
and the world.
164. I have mentioned three basic factors: the non-implementation
of United Nations resolutions, the lack of
universality in the Organization and the lack of substantial
progress in arms control, which, in the view of the Pakistan
delegation, have reduced the effectiveness of the United
Nations and generated a crisis of confidence. Let me now
turn to some of the burning questions which undermine
security and have destroyed peace in parts of the Asian-African world.
165. Pakistan is both in South-East Asia and to the east of
the Middle East. When a fire rages in the Middle East, we
feel the heat. When an earthquake occurs in South-East
Asia, we feel the shock. A general survey of these issues,
whether originating in southern Africa, in Viet-Nam, in the
Middle East or in our own subcontinent, reveals a characteristic
common to them all. This is that the root of the
disease in all cases is the denial to a people of their right of
self-determination. Wherever a people’s self-determination
is thwarted, conflict inevitably follows.
166. I take the case of southern Africa first. If colonialism
is still entrenched in its “white fortress” in that region; if,
as we fear, fuel is accumulating there for the fires of armed
racial conflict, it is because self-determination is being
denied to the peoples of Zimbabwe, Namibia and the
Territories at present under Portuguese control. That this
denial entails the assertion of the superiority of race no
doubt adds to the malignancy of the situation; but, even
with a less shameful plea, colonialism would still have been
equally odious and the cause of the subjugated peoples no
less just. Though apartheid and racial arrogance have been
condemned, time and again, by the United Nations, the
strife and suffering in that vital region have not been
reduced.
167. Pakistan is dismayed at the virtual failure of the
sanctions employed against the Ian Smith régime. This
involves the credibility of the Security Council. We urge the
permanent members of the Council to take note of the
implications of this failure for the United Nations. We
expect the legal administering Power, the United Kingdom
to discharge its responsibility and take more forceful
measures to rid Zimbabwe of the scourge of a racist régime.
168. We are perturbed that not sufficient action has been
taken to compel the Pretoria régime to remove its authority
from Namibia. The deadline for that withdrawal is two days
from now. Those Powers that are maintaining vital trade
relations with South Africa explain to us the manifold
difficulties of effective action against that country. But
they have to face a decision. They cannot shirk it
indefinitely. They have to ask themselves the question:
what is a greater danger for world peace and therefore for
their own long-range interests — a rupture of economic
relations with South Africa at present or a racial war in the
future? The question is a test not only of their moral
values, their compassion and their belief in the worth and
dignity of the human person; it is also a test of their
prudence and their sense of responsibility as world Powers.
169. The situation is South-East Asia continues to be
dominated by the devastating war in Viet-Nam. Here again
it is the self-determination of a people, a gifted and heroic
people, which is the prime issue. Ever since this conflict
took its most fearful turn, impartial opinion pleaded that
the problem of Viet-Nam did not admit of a military
solution. By repetition, the statement became a cliché. Yet
every development up to date testifies to its validity. The
people of Viet-Nam have gone through horror of a unique
kind. We earnestly hope that they will soon be enabled to
decide their future without any interference from outside.
170. The Middle East, the cradle of civilization, continues
to be a theatre of conflict. Its origin also lies in the historic
injustice done to the peoples of Palestine who are a nation
no less than any other and whose right to national existence
in their own homeland is inferior to that of none. It is
neither justice nor realism to consider the forced diaspora
of the Palestinians as extinguishing all their rights. Pakistan
believes that no approach to a solution of the Arab-Israeli
conflict will be creative unless it recognizes the right of
self-determination of the people of Palestine.
171. The problem of Palestine is the basic stratum of the
Middle East question. Superimposed on it is the other
problem which has been created by the invasion of the
territories of Jordan, Syria and the United Arab Republic
by Israel in 1967. This involves the territorial integrity of
three Member States of the United Nations. Though the
conflict is local, the issues that it raises are universal in their
scope. The issues are the following. First, can a Member
State resort to force and can such a resort be condoned and
considered to have strengthened its claim? Second, should
a Member State have the right to refuse to withdraw its
forces from the territory of another State or States until it
imposes peace terms according to its own will? Third, can
the acquisition of territory by military conquest be admissible?
172. It is those questions which have to be answered if a
just and lasting solution is to be achieved to the Middle East
conflict. The only answer to them must be an emphatic
negative, if the Charter of the United Nations has any meaning.
173. The situation in Jerusalem is one aspect of the
Middle East conflict which causes universal concern. We are
grateful to all Members of the United Nations, except Israel
of course, for their appreciation of the fact that the
problem of Jerusalem transcends the rights and claims of
the parties to the Arab-Israel conflict. Both the General
Assembly and the Security Council have called upon Israel
not to tamper with the status of the Holy City. Israel has
treated all relevant resolutions with contempt. The gravity
of this situation was underlined by the horrifying occurrence
of arson in the Holy Al Aqsa Masque on 21 August
1969. This event, which would have been unthinkable in
the civilized world, caused an emotional upheaval among
the followers of Islam, which is unexampled in the modern
age. Pakistan was overwhelmed by sorrow and seethed with
indignation.
174. The Security Council, we are gratified to say, reacted
to this event by determining solemnly that the abominable
act of arson in the Holy Al Aqsa Mosque “emphasizes the
immediate necessity of Israel desisting from acting in
violation of the previous resolutions and rescinding forthwith
all measures and actions taken by it designed to alter
the status of Jerusalem” [resolution 271 (1967)]. We will
naturally await Israel’s response. Should that response be
negative, the Security Council is committed to taking the
measures necessary for bringing about the deannexation by
Israel of the Holy City and the withdrawal of the Israeli
forces.
175. Whatever the measures the Council will take or fail to
take, one thing should be clear to all concerned. It is that
the Muslim countries, containing a population of more than
half a billion people, extending from Morocco to Indonesia,
will: not countenance any solution of the Middle East
conflict which contemplates the transfer of the Holy City
to Israeli sovereignty. Any such proposal will sow the seeds
of a permanent hostility focusing on Jerusalem. Any doubt
on this score should be dispelled by the declaration of the
Islamic Summit Conference at Rabat.? We cannot conceive
that the great Powers will fail to take into account the deep
attachment of the followers of Islam to Jerusalem and the
resolve of the Governments participating in that Conference
to strive for its liberation.
176. Our own region, the South Asian subcontinent,
continues to be denied the peace and stability which is both
its natural right and its desperate need. The root cause of
this instability and the lack of normalcy in the relations
between India and Pakistan, is the continuance of the
dispute concerning the State of Jammu and Kashmir. The
fact that this dispute has received less international attention
recently does not mean that it has become any less
grave.
177. India and Pakistan are parties to a solemn international
agreement to enable the people of Jammu and
Kashmir to decide whether to accede to India or to
Pakistan according to their own free will. This agreement
has been endorsed time and again by the Security Council.
We seek nothing from India except that this agreement be
honoured in spirit and in substance. Until it is fulfilled and
until the two countries faithfully carry out their pledge, the
expectations of the nearly 600 million peoples of India and
Pakistan that freedom would bring them security will
continue to be belied. That is the basic reality of the
situation in the India-Pakistan subcontinent. We have
repeatedly invited India to face this reality. We do so again
today.
178. How can this reality be faced? The first step would
be for the two countries to agree to enter into serious
negotiations for the settlement of the Jammu and Kashmir
dispute. It is to be deplored that India refuses to take this
first step. India says that it is prepared to have talks with
Pakistan without any pre-condition. What India suggests is
that we try to establish a friendly atmosphere but leave
untouched the primary cause why that atmosphere is
constantly vitiated. It is like inviting a patient to pretend to
be healthy while he is suffering from a grievous malady. We
invite India to a joint and serious effort to cure the disease.
India suggests that we remove a few minor symptoms.
179. Pakistan sincerely believes that once our major
disputes are settled, our nearness to each other and the
similarity of our economic and social problems will assert
themselves and establish a good neighbourly relationship
between us. The attitude of reconciliation will replace that
of distrust and antagonism. A climate of conciliation would
permit a solution of the differences that arise between neighbours.
180. India not only refuses to appreciate this consideration,
it acts in such a manner as to prevent any productive
negotiations on Kashmir. It has been continuously extending
the application of its own laws to the State of Jammu
and Kashmir. The people of Jammu and Kashmir have not
accepted India’s sovereignty. They were given a pledge by
the United Nations that they would be able to determine
their own future. They call upon Pakistan, and also upon
every other Member State, to honour that pledge. At
present, in the India-occupied area, they are being ruthlessly
suppressed. Despite the repression, their constant
agitation is a reminder to the world that they are longing to
exercise their right of freedom and self-determination. Can
we turn our eyes from this reality, and even if we did so,
would we serve the ends of peace?
181. This is what Pakistan has throughout tried to impress
on India. In July, President Muhammad Yahya Khan wrote
to the Prime Minister of India that the removal of minor
problems and side issues could not bring about a durable
friendship. Amity and understanding would continue to
elude both countries if they attempted the solution of such
issues only and refused to face the reality of major
problems. We profoundly regret that up to now, India’s
response has not been positive.
182. Yet another matter of grave concern to Pakistan is
the construction of the Farakka Barrage by India on the
international river, the Ganges. It is an outstanding example
of India’s refusal to recognize Pakistan’s rights. The barrage,
which is scheduled to be completed by 1970, that is, next
year, will lower the water level in the river to such an
extent as to turn hundreds of thousands of acres in East
Pakistan to waste land, and seriously disrupt its economy.
We have invited India to settle this dispute. India agrees to
meet us at the technical level but refuses to recognize that
the differences between experts can be intractable if they
are not resolved by a political understanding and agreement.
While the political talks are still to be held, India is
proceeding with the work of completing the barrage. It
wants to present us with a fait accompli. Its position on this
issue amounts to the assertion that the lower riparian has
no say in the use of the waters of an international river. We
invoke nothing but the recognized rules of international law
regarding the equitable sharing of the waters of international
rivers between upper and lower riparians.
183. I now turn to another tragic aspect of the Indian
scene. This is the heart-rending plight of the Muslim
minority of nearly 60 million people. Recurrent riots in
India take a heavy toll of Muslim life. Only two weeks ago,
we were aghast when we learned of the carnage in
Ahmedabad, where over a thousand Muslims, men, women
and children, are reported to have been slaughtered, and
thousands rendered homeless. Such a massacre of its own
citizens, merely because they belong to a helpless minority,
would be a disgrace to any country. Considering India’s
size, the sweep of its history, the variety of its culture, the
nature of its aspirations, the event is so shocking as to be
incredible, all the more so since it has taken place in the
birthplace of Gandhiji, whose centenary is being celebrated
today.
184. I am putting the truth plainly. I am not saying this in
a spirit of acrimony. It is not a matter of polemics. I have
no doubt that the Government of India must have been
grieved by the holocaust in Ahmedabad. But the very fact
that it did take place points to the failure of the machinery
of law and order to control the organized religious
fanaticism that is unleashed against the Muslims in India.
The Liaqat-Nehru Pact of 1950 made it a joint responsibility
for India and Pakistan to safeguard the life and
property of the minority communities in the two countries,
the Muslims in India and the Hindus in Pakistan. It is cause
for the profoundest regret that, since the signing of that
Pact, there have occurred nearly a thousand riots in India
resulting in the death of about 2,600 persons and in injuries
to nearly 8,000, not counting the dead and wounded in
Ahmedabad and Baroda just now. We appeal to the
Government of India to check this brutality. It alone is in a
position to do so. We appeal to the international community
to extend, in consultation with the Government of
India, such humanitarian assistance to the victims as it can
muster. Statesmanship requires that India and Pakistan so
concert their efforts as to assure that the minority
communities in their respective countries are protected and
not persecuted. We invite India to a joint endeavour in that
direction.
185. I have brought to the notice of the Assembly the
grave issues which affect Pakistan and imperil the peace in
important regions of the world. I have no illusion that those
issues will be resolved during this session of the Assembly.
Their solution entails a rededication on the part of all of us
to the principles of peace. But if our discussions during this
session should contribute even slightly to the necessary
alteration of outlook on the broadening of thoughts, then
the feeling will be justified that the session has not been
empty of results.
186. This session is being held in a historic year, the year
when man first set foot on the moon. That, indeed, was a
triumph of both technology and human daring. It was the
culmination of a vast, sustained effort and it showed what
man can achieve if he bends all his energies to the task. Yes,
we all feel proud of that almost unbelievable achievement.
Yet, how much more would we feel a glow of pride if, in
this same year, we were to devote the same energy to a
different task—the task of lightening man’s burden during
his life on this battered but beautiful earth.