Pakistan rejects India’s UNSC remarks on IWT, terrorism as ‘futile attempt’ to distort facts

Pakistan on Thursday rejected Indian remarks at the United Nations Security Council on the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) and terrorism as a ‘futile attempt’ to distort facts, saying India’s statement was an effort to conceal its alleged sponsorship and financing of terrorism against Pakistan.

The response followed remarks by India’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Ambassador Harish Parvathaneni, who accused Pakistan of “supporting cross-border terrorism” and said the “issue had affected bilateral cooperation over the IWT.”

In a right of reply to remarks by the Indian representative at the Security Council debate, First Secretary Ansar Shah rejected India’s assertions.

According to a statement posted on X, Shah said, “Pakistan is compelled to take the floor again to respond to India’s misleading statement, which is a futile attempt to distort facts and misrepresent the situation”.

“The Treaty contains no provision whatsoever permitting its so-called ‘abeyance’. India’s unilateral action is simply illegal. The Court of Arbitration, in its Award of August 2025, reaffirmed that the Treaty remains valid, binding and fully in force, together with its dispute settlement mechanisms,” Shah said.

He said that “India’s weaponisation of a shared natural resource for political coercion, with the stated aim of starving the population of Pakistan, is a serious breach of legal instruments and international norms.” 

“The situation poses a direct threat to regional and international peace and security and is completely germane to today’s debate,” Shah said.

Responding to India’s allegations on terrorism, he said, “The baseless assertion regarding terrorism is in fact an effort by India to conceal its sponsorship and financing of terrorism against Pakistan. India’s terrorist proxies, the TTP, BLA and Majeed Brigade have killed thousands of civilians and law enforcement personnel, including women and children on our soil”.

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“India’s involvement in extraterritorial executions, including in North America, is also well known. India is not a victim of terrorism. It is a sponsor of terrorism,” Shah said.

“India is also a perpetrator of state terrorism, including in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir – whose population is being denied its right to self-determination in gross violation of numerous resolutions of the Security Council,” Shah added.

According to the Shah, “India continues to disregard its obligations under the UN Charter, including Article 25, which requires Member States to carry out the decisions of the Security Council”.

“Jammu and Kashmir never was, nor is, an integral part of India. No unilateral or unlawful measures by the occupying power can alter the historical, legal and disputed character of the occupied territory of Jammu and Kashmir,” Shah said.

“India must fulfil all its legal obligations under international law, the UN Charter, and Security Council resolutions – instead of violating them and denying established facts,” he concluded.

While speaking at the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) High-Level Open Debate on “Natural Resource Governance: The Foundation of Peace, Security and Prosperity”, Pakistan’s Permanent Representative to the United Nations, Asim Iftikhar, said that the IWT “remains valid, binding and fully in force”, as reaffirmed by the August 2025 Award of the Court of Arbitration.

He urged the UNSC to remain vigilant against the exploitation or weaponisation of natural resources and to make full use of preventive diplomacy, peaceful dispute settlement, sanctions regimes and monitoring mechanisms where such actions endanger peace.