India criticised Pakistan at the United Nations, accusing Islamabad of attempting to malign New Delhi through propaganda while diverting attention from its domestic challenges, including economic distress, lawlessness and human rights violations.

Speaking during an interactive dialogue with the Special Rapporteur on Minority Issues at the UN General Assembly’s Third Committee yesterday, India’s First Secretary to the UN, Raghoo Puri, questioned Pakistan’s record on minority rights and alleged that the country’s military continued to exercise decisive control over its political leadership.

Referring to the controversy surrounding Pakistan’s 2024 general elections, Puri described Islamabad’s administration as a ‘Form 47 government’ and said it could not override the instructions of the Pakistani military, which he called the country’s ‘real rulers’. Form 47 is an official election document in Pakistan that records the provisional, consolidated results of voting in a constituency. Puri also highlighted concerns over the shrinking minority population in Pakistan and urged Islamabad to focus on the welfare of its own citizens rather than criticising India at international forums.

Rejecting Pakistan’s claims on Jammu and Kashmir, he reiterated that the region was an integral part of India and said the outstanding issue was the vacation of territories under Pakistan’s illegal occupation. Defending India’s record on minority rights, Puri described the country as a multi-religious, multi-ethnic and multilingual society, highlighting constitutional safeguards and the contributions of minority communities across government, the armed forces, industry and culture. Puri also stressed that protecting minority rights was primarily the sovereign responsibility of individual countries.