‘Baseless allegations’: How Pakistani media reacted to Sushma Swaraj’s speech at UNGA

Read | Strongly defends calling off talks: At UN, Sushma Swaraj tears into Pakistan ‘malevolence, verbal duplicity’

Here’s how the Pakistani media reported about Swaraj’s speech and cancellation of talks between the two countries:

Geo News

Geo News accused India of levelling “baseless allegations” even as India came clean on its relationship with Pakistan and reason behind the cancellation of talks. “The Indian minister (Sushma Swaraj) entirely ignored worst human rights violations by Indian forces in occupied Kashmir. On the occasion, Swaraj completely ignored ongoing atrocities in Indian-occupied Kashmir (IoK),” Geo News said.

Dawn

Focusing on Pakistan Foreign Minister Mahmood Qureshi’s rebuttal to his counterpart’s statement, Dawn’s front page carried a report with a headline “Pakistan warns India against LoC venture”.

In a separate opinion piece titled “Ugly face of BJP-ruled India”, former Pakistan ambassador to the UN Munir Akram hit out at India’s “concocted reasons” for cancellation of talks and explained the “nasty, brutish and short lives of the vast majority of the Indians” under the present Narendra Modi-led government. “Modi’s multiplying mistakes, the growing disenchantment of India’s masses and Pakistan’s resolute resistance may well combine to defeat this ugly regime at India’s 2019 polls,” the piece concluded.

Express Tribune

Another opinion piece in the Express Tribune by one Saima Aman Sial discussed “India’s somersault for dialogue in the context of the upcoming UNGA session”. “While in the last UNGA session, India found an often repeated pretext in propagating jingoism against so-called Pakistan sponsored terrorism, this time the opportunity was stolen by the Pakistani PM by offer for talks. Also, in the last session of the UNGA, Pakistan’s former PM Abbasi had drawn the international community’s attention to the Human Rights Violations in the Kashmir Valley. However, with the coming of the UNOCHR report this June, providing fresh evidence against India’s Human Rights violations in Kashmir, India used the concocted narrative of beheadings as a diversion from the real issue of human rights violations,” the piece read.

The piece also accused India of an “agenda of isolating Pakistan globally and the emerging domestic political context”. In her piece, the author accused India of “using some lone incident alleging India’s involvement, to gain political mileage domestically” ahead of next year’s Lok Sabha elections. “With little achievements to the BJP government’s credit to show in the upcoming elections, anti-Pakistan rhetoric is an easy election winning agenda in Indian politics,” it said.

Pakistan Today

Pakistan Today published a similar report like Dawn, with the headline “India blames Pakistan for talks failure”. Describing Swaraj’s remarks as “fiery”, the article said, “The Indian minister told the world leaders that the most startling evidence of Pakistan’s what she claimed ‘duplicity’ was the fact that Al Qaida founder Osama Bin Laden was given a ‘safe haven’ in the country.”

The Nation

The Nation also took note of the Pakistan FM’s response to Swaraj, headlining its report “At UN, Pakistan bashes India for politics over peace”.

From the homepage

‘Advising tourists to stay put until rescued’: As flood toll crosses 14, Mamata opens 24/7 control room, to visit Darjeeling tomorrow

IND-W vs PAK-W LIVE Cricket Score, Women’s World Cup 2025: India 247 all out (50 overs) vs Pakistan in Colombo

Bihar Assembly polls to be held before November 22: Election Commission