Pakistan

Sir Mohammad ZAFRULLA Khan stated that the Assembly was fortunate in having elected as its President an international personality who, through his courage, vision and lofty eloquence, had on all occasions emphasized and lent much needed support to the principles and the purposes of the Charter of the United Nations. The courtesy, skill and speed with which he had conducted the proceedings and guided the deliberations of the Ad Hoc Political Committee during the third session were guarantees that the work of the Assembly during the current session would proceed to its conclusion smoothly and speedily. General Romulo’s election to the high office of President of the Assembly was a matter of deep gratification to the Pakistan delegation, and to Sir Mohammad Zafrulla Khan personally. Both General Romulo and the Assembly were to be congratulated on the happy choice! 100. The year that had elapsed had marked a great advance in the achievements of the United Nations in the economic, social and humanitarian fields. 101. The project of economic aid to under-developed countries was of particular interest to Pakistan, which was glad to accord it its general approval and support. Pakistan looked forward, during the course of the current session, to making its due contribution to the shaping and formulation of the project, and later to its implementation. The project betokened further recognition of the reality that not only peace and security but also the welfare and prosperity of mankind, in all their aspects, were interdependent and indivisible; that, in fact, mankind was fast becoming one family and must learn to live together in peace and beneficent co-operation, or parish. Indeed, that fact was expressly recognized in the Charter itself, which, in its Preamble, declared that the peoples of the United Nations were determined to practise tolerance and to live together in peace with one another as good neighbours, so as to save succeeding generations from the scourge of war, and also that, to the same end, they were determined to employ international machinery for the promotion of the economic and social advancement of all peoples, The project of economic aid to under-developed countries was only one practical expression of that determination. 102. The Pakistan delegation regretted that it cannot express the same degree of satisfaction with the work of the United Nations in respect of the maintenance of international peace and security through effective collective measures for the prevention and removal of threats to the peace and for the suppression of acts of aggression or breaches of the peace, as provided for in Article 1 of the Charter. 103. Addressing the Assembly during the general discussions at the first part of the third session, he himself had drawn attention to an instance of aggression committed by a powerful State against a weak and peaceful neighbour while the appeal of the latter against the threatened aggression had been pending and had been under discussion by the Security Council; he was referring to the case of Hyderabad. The question was still on the agenda of the Security Council; it was listed as item 11 of matters relating to the maintenance of international peace and security which were being dealt with by the Security Council and which had been notified by the Secretary-General to the Assembly (A/9/9) under paragraph 2 of Article 12. It was regrettable that the Security Council had so far not found itself able to take any steps towards the suppression of what undoubtedly had been and still was an act of aggression. 104. Other questions involving threats to the peace were before the Security Council. The group of questions included in item 8 of those notified by the Secretary-General, namely, the India-Pakistan question, was of the most direct and vital interest to Pakistan, the dispute relating to the accession of Kashmir being the most outstanding among them. A brief reference to that question had been made by the representative of India, in the course of his address to the Assembly at the 222nd meeting, but he had confined himself to generalities. The dispute, however, had dragged on through various phases for nearly two years, and Sir Mohammad Zafrulla Khan thought it would be appropriate, for the benefit and information of those States Members which were not represented on the Security Council, to explain briefly at what stage the efforts of the United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan Which was seeking to bring about a settlement had been brought to a standstill. 105. Members were aware that Pakistan and India were agreed that the question of the accession of the State of Jammu and Kashmir to Pakistan or India should be determined on the basis of a free and impartial plebiscite of the people of the State. A campaign had recently been started in the Indian Press to persuade the Government of India to withdraw from that position. It was to be hoped, however, that India would not withdraw from the position which it had consistently held for two years. 106. A cease-fire agreement had been brought about through the efforts of the United Nations Commission. The next task of the Commission had been to bring about a truce agreement, and there the Commission had been confronted with demands and contentions which it had found itself unable to resolve by its own efforts. The Commission had therefore proposed that all matters of dispute between the parties, relating to the settlement of the truce agreement, should be submitted to the arbitration of Admiral Nimitz, who had already been nominated by the parties as the Plebiscite Administrator. The Commission had proposed that the parties should agree to accept the decision of Admiral Nimitz on the disputed matters relating to the truce. 107. One of the matters in dispute between the parties was whether a certain question was to be determined at the truce stage or whether, under the resolutions of the Commission accepted by the parties and under the clarifications given by the Commission, it could be dealt with only during the period of the organization of the plebiscite which was to follow the truce. India’s contention was that the matter must be determined as part of the truce agreement. Pakistan contended that it could be determined only during the plebiscite stage, when it would have to be synchronized with other related questions. The Indian representative had contended that, though arbitration was one of the methods of peaceful settlement enjoined by the Charter, India was unable to accept the Commission’s proposal for arbitration in that case, since the issues to be decided had not been clearly defined. The fallacy underlying that statement was that one of the questions to be determined by the arbitrator was whether the issue that the Indian representative had in mint! was to be determined at that stage or whether it came within the category of those to be determined at the next stage. That being the case, it was obviously for the arbitrator to determine whether, on the basis of the terms of the resolutions of the. Commission accepted by both parties anti the clarification of those resolutions furnished by the Commission to the parties, the issue must be determined at that stage or await determination at the next stage. If the arbitrator accepted the first view, he would proceed to determine it forthwith; if he were of the second opinion, he would so rule and the issue would be excluded from determination at the current stage. 108. In making that aspect of the matter an excuse for rejecting the proposal of the Commission, the Indian representative and the Indian Government appeared to be sheltering behind a position which they knew to be untenable. In the course of his distinguished career, the Indian representative had occupied a high judicial position, and had he been called upon to determine the question at issue judicially, it would surely hot have taken him more than a few minutes to come to the conclusion that India had advanced the excuse merely to obstruct a process which must go forward speedily and must culminate in the organization and holding of a fair and impartial plebiscite at a very early date, if peace were to be preserved and maintained. Pakistan had found no difficulty in accepting the proposal of the Commission that the questions in dispute, relating to the settlement of the truce, should be submitted to the arbitration of the officer whom it was proposed to appoint as arbitrator and who had already been nominated Plebiscite Administrator. If India were, as its representative claimed, a loyal Member of the United Nations, anxious for a peaceful and stable solution of the problem, it must, as early as possible, agree to some process which would speedily resolve the deadlock and enable the Plebiscite Administrator to organize and hold a fair and impartial plebiscite. 109. Sir Mohammad Zafrulla Khan proceeded to draw the attention of the Assembly to another dispute which had been pending between Pakistan and India for nearly eighteen months and which, if not peacefully settled, threatened to place the maintenance of international peace and security in grave danger. 110. The dispute in question related to the apportionment of the waters of the rivers which had been cut across by the drawing of the boundary line between India and West Pakistan. A large part of those waters was utilized for purposes of irrigation in West Pakistan and the States that had acceded to Pakistan, and upon the continuation of the supply of those waters depended not only the welfare and prosperity but even the livelihood and existence of large sections of the people of West Pakistan. The dispute had arisen over the action of India in cutting off, in 1948, and in the case of one channel in August 1947, the flow into Pakistan of the latter’s share of the waters of certain canal systems which, by the partition, had become international. Previously, as a Joint Expert Committee on Partition had reported, there had been no question of varying the authorized shares of water to which the two zones and the various canals had been entitled before partition. 111. It would be readily recognized that, owing to the dependence of millions of people upon the rivers and irrigation systems across which the political boundary had been drawn, the distribution of those common waters was a matter of vital concern. An interruption, such as had occurred over a year previously, in the flow of waters upon which essential food-growing areas of Pakistan depended, or a diminution in that flow, or even a threat of interruption or diminution. which would have the effect of converting millions of acres of fertile land into arid wastes, created a situation likely to endanger the maintenance of international peace and security and was inconsistent with the obligations of membership in the United Nations. 112. A year of negotiation had failed to accomplish the restoration of the flow into Pakistan of one of those systems. In connexion with the restoration of the flow of the others, the Government of India had asserted the right to impose certain onerous conditions. Pakistan had reserved its rights, and the two Governments had agreed that further meetings between their representatives should take place, in the hope that a friendly solution would be reached. 113. Those meetings had taken place, but a solution had not been reached. In fact, the meetings had failed to bring the views of the parties closer together. Instead, the Government of India had put forward contentions that struck at the very root of Pakistan’s right to its historic, legal and equitable share in the common waters. India had claimed that, as an upper riparian State, it was entitled to divert every drop of the water of those common international rivers to its own uses and to dry up altogether those areas which had hitherto depended upon them for irrigation. It should be noted that Pakistan had already invested millions of dollars in the development of the irrigation systems of those areas. 114. The continued interference, or threat of interference, with the flow of those waters was so disquieting and pregnant with danger to the maintenance of peaceful conditions as to make it imperative that a speedy solution should be sought by negotiation or adjudication. Pakistan was continuing its efforts to seek a solution by mutual agreement in the earnest hope that such a solution, acceptable to both sides, might be reached at an early date, but the matter was urgent and could not be delayed longer. If a settlement by negotiation should prove to be beyond the reach of the parties, Pakistan would be willing to submit the dispute to the adjudication of the International Court of Justice, as required by the Charter. Indeed, it had already submitted that proposal to India as an alternative in the event of a failure to reach settlement by agreement. 115. Pakistan’s attitude in respect of both those vital and urgent matters was the clearest possible proof of its determination to seek a solution of all international disputes and problems through peaceful means, first by negotiation and, if that should fail, through recourse to the appropriate organs of the United Nations. If the purposes of the United Nations were to be achieved through peaceful methods, not only India, but all States, whether Members of the United Nations or not, would have to give similar proof of their anxiety that their disputes and problems should be resolved through such means. 116. The most outstanding problems in the political field with which the Assembly would have to deal during the course of the session were those relating to the former Italian colonies, Indonesia and Palestine. The problem of Greece was happily on the way towards a solution. 117. On the question of the former Italian colonies, Pakistan had made its point of view perfectly clear during the previous session, and to that point of view it continued to adhere. Pakistan maintained that a solution of that question must be found, as stated in annex XI to the peace treaty with Italy, in the light of the wishes and welfare of the inhabitants of those territories and the interests of peace and security, taking into consideration the views of other interested Governments. Of all those considerations, the wishes and welfare of the inhabitants were paramount. Human beings, whether as individuals or in groups, could not be herded about as so many head of cattle. The Pakistan delegation would be prepared to lend its. support to any proposal which maintained and gave effect to the principles of the Charter and would oppose any proposed solution that ran contrary to them. 118. As representatives were aware, a conference of representatives of Indonesia and the Netherlands, engaged in formulating a settlement of the Indonesian question, was sitting at The Hague. It was to be hoped that such a settlement, honourable and satisfactory to all concerned, would emerge from the discussions and deliberations of the conference in time for the fourth session of the General Assembly to take note of it and to give it its blessing. If by misfortune, that should not prove to be the case, the matter would come up for discussion, since it was on the Assembly’s agenda. Pakistan’s contribution to the discussion would be based upon the principles of the Charter, the outstanding one1 in that case being respect for the principle of equal rights and self-determination of peoples. 119. The feelings of the people of Pakistan and the attitude of its Government in respect of that matter were charged with a deep poignancy. They would not be able either to enjoy or to appreciate to the fullest extent their own recently achieved freedom and sovereignty until all the other nations of South West Asia which had not yet attained to full freedom found themselves in similar case. That applied not only to Indonesia, but also to Malaya, to Viet-Nam and, indeed, to all the other countries, nations and peoples that were still struggling to attain to the fullness of independence, both in the political and in the economic spheres. 120. With regard to Palestine, Pakistan’s stand had throughout been clear and unequivocal. Pakistan did not depart in any way from the views which had been expressed on its behalf on that question. In the meantime certain calamities, of which Pakistan had given due and timely warning, had unfortunately overtaken an unfortunate section of the people of that unhappy land. Without prejudice to its main stand on the question, Pakistan would be prepared to take note of the exigencies of the situation and to make a contribution towards securing their redress on a fair, just and humanitarian basis. 121. One of the specific questions that would come under discussion was the effective internationalization of Jerusalem. To that Pakistan would give wholehearted support. It might be said that that aspect of the larger problem of Palestine would be a test of the consistency and effectiveness of the United Nations. In seeking to carry into effect the internationalization of Jerusalem, the United Nations was seeking merely to give effect to an important provision of the resolution which had culminated in the setting up of the State of Israel. The internationalization of Jerusalem had been one of the prior conditions of the creation of that State. Israel had thrown a challenge to the United Nations in respect of that condition. It would be an object lesson to the world and, indeed, might be a crucial test of the very justification of the continuation of the United Nations, for the Organization successfully and effectively to meet that challenge. 122. There were many other important matters on the agenda of the session on which he would not comment. An observation, however, was called for in connexion with the Interim Committee. That Committee had been set up with a legitimate purpose as an experimental measure. Unfortunately the experiment had not justified itself, mainly owing to the fact that a group of Member States had refused to participate in the activities of the Committee. One result of that had been that important questions, which could well have been referred to the Committee and should normally have been so referred, had been allotted to special committees, so that they could be dealt with by all the. Member States, or by such of them as had been nominated to those committees. Pakistan still hoped that it might be possible to persuade the group of States which had declined to participate in the work of the Interim Committed to change their attitude, but if that should unfortunately not be found possible, it would appear that the experiment should no longer be continued. 123. The ideological conflict continued not only to divide the World but also to harass its peoples and to threaten peace and security. The complexity of the human problems involved required that they should be approached from various angles; indeed, diverse points of view and differences of approach and method were essential conditions of advancement and progress and should, therefore, be encouraged. What was needed, however, was tolerance, which should provide full scope for ideas to act and react beneficently upon each other. 124. Pakistan’s view was that every nation must be free to develop its social, economic and political systems and institutions along the lines best suited to its own needs and expressive of its genius. What must be insisted upon was that no force, violence or coercion, organized or unorganized, should be permitted to be employed, either inside a nation or from outside, to force a people to give up that which they desired to retain or to adopt that which they were reluctant to accept. Whatever was attempted must be undertaken openly and carried out by peaceful means. If that could be accepted and put into effect on a worldwide scale, the suspicions of sinister motives and the fears of secret and violent designs, which were poisoning international relations and constituted so grave a threat to the maintenance of peace and security, would soon be dispelled, making beneficent co-operation possible between groups of States which were divided from each other by those suspicions and fears. 125. One effort that would help to clear the atmosphere would be to foster knowledge in all spheres, to provide accurate information and to facilitate and promote free intercourse and interchanges across national and international frontiers. The activities of the United Nations directed towards the lowering and removal of barriers restricting the free movement of ideas, information and individuals should be intensified, since those barriers hindered better understanding and deeper friendship between the nations. 126. Pakistan could be relied upon to give its fullest co-operation towards the achievement of the ideals and purposes of the United Nations as set forth in the Charter.