Defying UN Sanctions

While Pakistan may have a host of negative attributes, it nevertheless deserves credit for not only brazenly violating international agreements, but also getting away with the same.

The latest example of this are media reports regarding Pakistan’s newly promoted Chief of Defence Forces (CDF) Field Marshal Syed Asim Munir approving a $ 4 billion sale package of military hardware to the Libyan National Army (LNA), a conglomerate comprising fundamentalist militias and foreign mercenaries.

Readers would recall that during January this year, the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) had vide resolution 2769 (2025), extended the existing arms embargo to “armed actors in Libya” upto May 15, 2026. Expressing “grave concern over continued violations of the arms embargo,” it “demands full compliance by all Member States with the arms embargo” and stipulates that those violating it “are subject to designation.” LNA is an "armed actor," yet Munir doesn’t seem to care.

An Ignominious Record

The Pakistan army has a long history of disregarding international laws and conventions. Less than three months after its creation, the Pakistan army violated the standstill agreement signed by the Government of Pakistan with the then ruler of J&K by launching an unprovoked military operation in the garb of a tribal invasion to seize control of this region. It made yet another such unsuccessful attempt in 1965 and pushed Pakistan into a full blown war with India.

Despite these two consecutive reverses, the Pakistan army doesn’t seem to have learnt a lesson as it made yet another attempt in 1999 to alter the Line of Control (LoC) alignment but its troops were forced to retreat after abandoning the dead bodies of their rank and file killed in combat.

While Rawalpindi may try and justify these military misadventures by peddling the incredible yarn of J&K being Pakistan’s Shah Ragh (Jugular Vein), how does it explain its former army chief Gen Pervez Musharraf’s revelation that “We poisoned Pakistani civil society for 10 years when we fought the Soviets in Afghanistan in the 1980s”? Isn't it a tragedy that Rawalpindi hasn't even spared its own countrymen?

Defying UN Sanctions

Perhaps one of the most outrageous (and surprisingly least mentioned) incident which reveals complete disregard that the Pakistan army has for honouring UN stipulated arms embargo is the partisan role played by its spy agency Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) during the Bosnian War in the 1990s, which was revealed by none other than Lt Gen Javed Nasir who was the Director General (DG) ISI during this period.

In his petition filed in an anti-terrorism court in Lahore on October 23, 2002 against a report of his alleged involvement in embezzlement published by an English daily, Nasir had mentioned that “despite the UN ban on supply of arms to the besieged Bosnians, he successfully airlifted sophisticated anti-tank guided missiles which turned the tide in favour of Bosnian Muslims and forced the Serbs to lift the siege, ...”

Nasir’s voluntary revelation set alarm bells ringing and when the former Yugoslavian army chief and his deputy were put on trial by the International Criminal Tribunal for the former Yugoslavia (ICTY) for war crimes and crimes against humanity during the war in Bosnia and Croatia during the 1990s, the duo claimed that the military help to the Bosnian Muslims by Lt Gen Nasir had compelled them to retaliate against Bosnian Muslims.

However, Pakistan turned down ICTY’s request for custody of the former DGISI on the grounds that after having met with an accident, Lt Gen Nasir had “lost his memory” in an accident and hence was unable to either depose in court. Inexplicably, no neutral medical committee was formed by ICTY to evaluate whether Lt Gen Nasir was really not in a mental condition to appear before ICTY.

Though several Islamic countries such as Egypt, Tunisia, Algeria and the Philippines lodged strong protests with Islamabad against Lt Gen Nasir’s covert support to radical movements in their respective countries, Rawalpindi took no action to rein him in. It was only after Washington registered a formal complaint regarding his partisan dealings and put Pakistan on its terror watch list, that Lt Gen Nasir’s services were terminated in 1993.

Interestingly, despite proven charges of extremely serious professional misconduct, Islamabad didn’t even consider it necessary to investigate Lt Gen Nasir even after he acknowledged having violated the UN arms embargo. Could there be a more revealing example of institutional irresponsibility?

Demystifying Rawalpindi’s Hyper-Arrogance

Since the Pakistan army is law unto itself and answerable to none, it would be wrong to apportion blame on the Government of Pakistan for the failure to take appropriate action against delinquent Generals and the infamous 2016 Dawn Leak incident is a classic illustration of Rawalpindi’s overbearing dominance over Islamabad.

Readers would recall how Rawalpindi took extraordinary umbrage to a factual news report published by Dawn revealing that the army had been told by the lawmakers and bureaucrats that it needed to act against militants (terrorists) or face international isolation. While the author of this report was placed on the Exit Control List, the Information Minister was sacked. The most surprising thing however was that DGISPR who was just a two-star General had the gall to tweet that "Notification (issued by the Prime Minister’s Office) on Dawn Leak is incomplete and not in line with recommendations by the Inquiry Board. Notification is rejected."

Besides the legislature, Rawalpindi also has the judiciary under its thumb. Some examples of the influence Rawalpindi wields over the judiciary:

• In 2016, former Pakistan army chief Gen Pervez Musharraf disclosed that the then army chief Gen Raheel Sharif had "influenced the courts" to get him off the Exit Control List and leave the country.
• In 2018, Islamabad High Court senior judge Justice Shaukat Aziz revealed that the judiciary was under control of the army by disclosing that “in different cases, the ISI forms benches of its choice to get desired results.”
• In 2024, six sitting judges of Pakistan’s Supreme Court addressed a letter to the country’s Supreme Judicial Council complaining that “considerable pressure was brought to bear” on the signatories by the ISI through intimidatory tactics like placing secret surveillance devices in living and bedrooms, as well as abducting and torturing their family members. They requested that “a judicial convention be called to consider the matter of interference of intelligence (ISI) operatives with judicial functions and/or intimidation of judges in a manner that undermines the independence of the judiciary.”

It emerges that the Pakistan army's scant regard for international laws and conventions stems from abysmal failure of the UN and international community to faithfully discharge its assigned responsibilities and taking appropriate actions to penalise Islamabad for violating international laws. Field Marshal Munir’s has started main streaming terrorism in Pakistan.

Pakistan army officers and soldiers in uniform attended the funeral prayer ceremony of terrorists killed in the Indian airstrike on headquarters of Lashkar-e-Taiba (LeT) located in Muridke during Operation Sindoor. US-designated terrorist Hafiz Abdur Rauf led the prayers and the coffins of slain LeT commanders were draped in Pakistan’s national flag- an irrefutable proof of Rawalpindi’s close links with terrorists. Yet, the international community remains unperturbed by this barefaced public display of the Pakistan army’s solidarity with terrorist groups.

In October, UN designated terrorist Masood Azhar announced the creation of the JeM’s women wing named Jamaat-ul-Mominaat with his sister Sadia Azhar as its chief. Females joining this outfit would undergo Daura-e-Taskiya, an induction course which is the equivalent of the Daura-e-Tarbiat course for male JeM new entrants in which they are taught that jihad (Holy war) against India guarantees jannat (paradise). However, after completing the Daura-e-Taskiya course, the women recruits would attend Daura-Ayat-ul- Nisah, a course where they would study Islamic interpretations that mandate female participation in armed jihad.

The international community doesn’t seem to be perturbed by the Pakistan army’s close links with terrorist groups as they probably perceive this evil nexus being essentially anti-India that poses no threat to them. However, its silence on the creation of Jamaat-ul-Mominaat is really worrisome because with the announcement that women of this organisation will operate alongside male JeM terrorists to “spread Islam across the world” through armed jihad, no one is any longer safe.

Looking the other way is no longer an option!

Nilesh Kunwar is a retired Indian Army Officer who has served in Jammu & Kashmir, Assam, Nagaland and Manipur. He is a keen ‘Kashmir-Watcher,’ and after retirement is pursuing his favourite hobby of writing for newspapers, journals and think-tanks. Views expressed above are the author's own