Rachita Bhandari, from the Permanent Mission of India at UNHRC, exercises right of reply | Photo Credit: ANI

Geneva: Exercising its right of reply at the United Nations Human Rights Council (UNHRC) session in Geneva, India on Thursday flayed Pakistan for referring to various resolutions of the UN Security Council (UNSC) in a bid to corner New Delhi but never itself complying with any of them.

Rachita Bhandari, from the Permanent Mission of India, told the UNHRC session that Islamabad has not withdrawn from the illegally-occupied Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) for over seven decades despite there being a UNSC resolution on the same.

“Can Pakistan deny the fact that UNSC resolutions which it keeps referring to, ask Pakistan, as the very first step, to withdraw from the illegally-occupied territory of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir and that it has not done so for more than seven decades?” the Indian representative asked.

Right of Reply by India's Rachita Bhandari, Permanent Mission of India, at UN Human Rights Council,Geneva: Can Pak deny that it's home to130 UN designated terrorists&25 terrorist entities listed by UN,&that these proscribed individuals have actively campaigned/contested in polls? pic.twitter.com/KIzV1v8AFy — ANI (@ANI) March 11, 2020

In another question for the South Asian country which has been well established to have sponsored terrorist attacks in India, Bhandari asked: “Can Pakistan deny that it is home to 130 UN-designated terrorists and 25 terrorist entities listed by the United Nations, and that these proscribed individuals have actively campaigned or contested in polls?”

Further, hitting back at Pakistan over its bid to corner India over human rights, Bhandari said New Delhi did not need to learn from Pakistan how to uphold democratic values or human rights.

“India, as not only the world’s largest democracy but a robustly functional and vibrant one, could well do without lessons from a failed State like Pakistan whose own people never enjoyed either true democracy or human rights,” the Indian officer said in scathing remarks aimed at the country currently ruled by Prime Minister Imran Khan.

Earlier, Pakistan was exposed in Geneva by a European think-tank for continuing to sponsor and export terrorism despite being under the radar of the Financial Action Task Force (FATF) – the UN’s anti-terror funding watchdog.

Junaid Qureshi, director at the European Foundation for South Asian Studies (EFSAS), said terrorism and its sponsorship pose the greatest threat to human rights.

"Recent(ly), the FATF pressure on Pakistan has compelled the country's military establishment to adopt a more selective attitude towards promoting, sponsoring and exporting terrorism. (It’s) nothing new, as over decades, Pakistan has honed this skill into an art," Qureshi said.