India criticised Pakistan over its record on judicial independence, minority rights and press freedom at a UN discussion on the rule of law, saying Islamabad was in no position to lecture others
India has hit out at Pakistan at the United Nations over its remarks on the rule of law, saying Islamabad cannot deliver “lectures” when “Army is the rule, and Army is the law” in the country.
India exercised its Right of Reply on Friday after Pakistan made remarks during a discussion in the Sixth Committee of the UN General Assembly on ‘Rule of Law at National and International Levels’.
“It is ironic to hear lectures on rule of law from a nation whose own record makes a mockery of it,” Counsellor in the Permanent Mission of India to the UN R. Mythili said, adding that Pakistan claims at the UN to defend the rule of law while its Army effectively determines it at home.
“A state that places its military rulers beyond the reach of its own courts is in no position to lecture on the rule of law in this committee,” she said, describing Pakistan’s 26th Constitutional Amendment as a “real blow” to judicial independence.
The 26th Constitutional Amendment made way for significant institutional changes in the structure and functioning of Pakistan’s judicial system. It is seen as going against the rule of law and protection of human rights.
Mythili slammed Pakistan over the imprisonment of former prime minister Imran Khan, saying a regime where no government has been allowed to finish an elected term and an ex-prime minister is arbitrarily jailed and denied medical treatment in opposition to its own Supreme Court’s direction makes a “mockery of the rule of law”.
She also accused Pakistan of preventing a popular party from contesting elections, sentencing civilians through military courts, muzzling Supreme Court judges and crushing human rights.
“I say only one thing to my Pakistani colleague: Listen to your people,” she said.
In a further statement, Mythili rejected Pakistan’s allegations as an attempt to divert attention from its own record on minority rights and press freedom.
She said Pakistan’s accusations over India’s treatment of religious minorities were a “tactical diversion” from its own conduct towards minorities, whose percentage in its population, she said, has been constantly shrinking since the country came into existence.
Mythili also referred to Pakistan’s new Foreign Media Facilitation Guidelines, which require a ‘no objection certificate’ for assignments outside Islamabad, Lahore and Karachi.
“And in such a country, what can possibly be the state of the fourth pillar of democracy?” she said, adding that those in power have an obligation under the rule of law towards the people they govern, a promise she said Pakistan has repeatedly broken.
Mythili asserted that India does not have an obsession with Pakistan but that it was the other way round.
She also defended Operation Sindoor, launched by India in May 2025 targeting terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir in retaliation for the Pahalgam terror attack, calling it a “measured, proportionate, and focused response to a gruesome terror attack.” “As far as the result of the same is concerned, if bombed airfields and destroyed hangars are victory, they are welcome to enjoy it,” she said.
Mythili said repeatedly reading out what she described as a “laundry list of false allegations” against India would not absolve Pakistani representatives of promises made to their people which, she alleged, they had no intention of keeping.
