FRIDAY’S SOLUTIONS

Qureshi, who would address the General Assembly later on Saturday, is expected to attack India on many points and raise the issue of Kashmir as Pakistani leaders have done for years. He is also expected to accuse India of rights violations.

“Time and again, Pakistan accuses India of human rights violations,” Swaraj said. “Who can be a greater transgressor of human rights than a terrorist? Those who take innocent human lives in pursuit of war by other means are defenders of inhuman behaviour, not of human rights. Pakistan glorifies killers, it refuses to see blood of innocents.”

Swaraj also referred to the General Assembly in 2017, when Pakistan had presented photographs of a grievously wounded woman as “proof” of rights abuse by India in Kashmir, but it later emerged the image was of a victim wounded in airstrikes by Israeli forces in Gaza.

Swaraj also renewed a call for reforming the UN, warning it could face the fate of the League of Nations, which “went into meltdown because it was unwilling to accept the need for reform”. Started after World War 1 to prevent conflicts, the league folded up in 1946 after failing to stop World War 2.

“If the UN is ineffective, the whole concept of multilateralism will collapse,” the external affairs minister warned.

India has been seeking UN reforms, including expanding the permanent membership of the Security Council, to make it more representative of a changing world order, and has staked claim to its membership.

Swaraj reiterated India’s commitment to combating climate change, and called on developed countries to shoulder a larger share of the mitigation efforts.

“Those who have exploited nature for their immediate needs cannot abdicate their responsibilities,” she said.