India Slams Pakistan at UN Over Imran Khan’s Jailing, Political Crackdown, and Terror Sponsorship

India on Monday sharply criticized Pakistan at the United Nations over its internal politics, the jailing of former Prime Minister Imran Khan, and the banning of his political party. Speaking at the UN Security Council’s Open Debate on ‘Leadership for Peace,’ India’s Permanent Representative to the UN, Harish Parvathaneni, accused Pakistan of undermining democratic norms and granting lifetime immunity to its top military leadership.

“Pakistan, of course, has a unique way of respecting the will of its people—by jailing a Prime Minister, by banning the ruling political party, and by letting its armed forces engineer a constitutional coup through the 27th amendment and giving lifetime immunity to its Chief of Defence Forces,” Parvathaneni said.

India’s remarks came after Pakistan’s representative raised what he called an “unresolved dispute” in Jammu and Kashmir and criticized India’s suspension of the Indus Waters Treaty.

Cricketer-turned-politician Imran Khan has been in prison since August 2023, with his family and party members alleging mistreatment. Last week, Khan’s ex-wife Jemima Goldsmith claimed that her social media posts about his health and jail conditions were not reaching audiences inside Pakistan and appealed publicly to Tesla CEO Elon Musk for assistance.

Pakistan a ‘Global Epicentre of Terror’

Parvathaneni also condemned Pakistan for sponsoring terrorism, calling it a “global epicentre of terror.” Highlighting the April 22 Pahalgam terror attack that killed 26 people, he linked Pakistan’s repeated violations of the Indus Waters Treaty to its history of cross-border hostilities.

“India entered into the Indus Waters Treaty 65 years ago in good faith, in a spirit of goodwill and friendship. Throughout these six and a half decades, Pakistan has violated the spirit of the Treaty by inflicting three wars and thousands of terror attacks on India,” Parvathaneni said.

He added, “In the last four decades, tens of thousands of Indian lives have been lost in Pakistan-sponsored terror attacks, the most recent being the Pahalgam attack in April 2025, which involved religion-based targeted killings of 26 innocent civilians by Pakistan-sponsored terrorists. It is in this backdrop that India has finally announced that the Treaty will be held in abeyance until Pakistan, a global epicentre of terror, credibly and irrevocably ends its support for cross-border and all other forms of terrorism.”