In a stinging reply to Pakistan, India said that because of its commitment to stage-only elections Islamabad is crestfallen that the people in Kashmir exercised their free right to vote and selected their leaders.
"Sham elections, incarceration of Opposition leaders, and suppression of political voices are what Pakistan is familiar with. It is natural that Pakistan must be disappointed to see real democracy at work," Eldos Mathew Punnoose, a counsellor at India's United Nations Mission said on Monday.
"Given their tainted democratic record, Pakistan considers real democratic exercises as a sham, as reflected in their statement," he said responding to remarks by Pakistan's Permanent Representative Munir Akram at the General Assembly's Special Political and Decolonisation Committee.
"It was only last week that election results were announced in Jammu and Kashmir. Millions of voters in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir have spoken," Punoose said.
"They exercised their right to vote and have chosen their leadership according to the Constitutional framework and universal adult suffrage," he said. "Clearly, these terms must be alien to Pakistan."
More than six million voters appeared to cast their ballots in Kashmir at the first post-2019 rescindment of Kashmir's special status elections, electing the opposition coalition of the National Conference and the Congress Party and dealing a defeat to the Bharatiya Janata Party in power at the Centre.
Earlier while speaking at the debate on decolonization at the panel, which is also referred to as the Fourth Committee, Akram termed the election a "sham".
Punoose asked Pakistan to stop the "grave and ongoing human rights violations in Pakistan-occupied Jammu, Kashmir, and Ladakh (PoJKL)".
"The world witnesses the divisive activities that Pakistan attempts to carry out on a daily basis," he said.
It is ironic that a country which is infamous across the globe for state-sponsored terrorism and transnational crimes casts aspersions on the world's largest democracy," Punoose said.
"It has been Pakistan's consistent state policy to employ cross-border terrorism as a weapon against its neighbours," he said.
"The list of attacks orchestrated by Pakistan is indeed long. In India, they have targeted our Parliament, marketplaces, and pilgrimage routes, among several others. Normal Indian citizens have been victims of such dastardly and inhumane acts by Pakistan," he said.
"India symbolises pluralism, diversity, and democracy. In contrast, Pakistan reminds the world of terrorism, parochialism, and persecution," Punoose said.
Religious and ethnic minorities and their places of worship are targeted and vandalised on a regular basis, he said.
Therefore, "it is important for Pakistan to first look inwards and set its own house in order instead of meddling in the internal affairs of neighbouring countries," he added.
The national elections of Pakistan occurred in February. The opposition leader and former Prime Minister Imran Khan and several of his supporters were in the prison and were debarred from contesting.
The restrictions on the opposition affected their ability to campaign.
The elections conducted under the control of the military marred by violence, where cell phone services were cut to stop the mobilization of voters.
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