Pakistan rejects India’s new domicile laws for Kashmir

By News Desk

ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has strongly condemned and rejected an Indian amendment to domicile laws which aim at illegally changing Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir’s (IOJ&K) demographic structure by enabling non-Kashmiris to settle there.

“The so-called ‘Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization Order 2020’ is another illegal step by India to settle non-Kashmiris in IOJ&K by changing the domicile laws,” Foreign Office spokesperson Aisha Farooqui said in a statement on Thursday. “This is a clear violation of international law, including the 4th Geneva Convention.”

Through a notification issued by the Indian government a day earlier, a domiciled person has been defined as one who has resided for a period of 15 years in the disputed territory or has studied for a period of seven years and appeared in class 10 or 12 examination in an educational institution located there.

Farooqui said the Indian action, a continuation of India’s illegal and unilateral steps since August, 2019, also constituted a violation of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC) Resolutions, bilateral agreements between India and Pakistan, and humanitarian norms.

The spokesperson said the Kashmiris in IOJ&K have outrightly rejected the new law as “unacceptable”. “Indeed, the Kashmiris will never accept such blatant usurpation of their fundamental rights and attempts to change their demography and distinct identity,” she added.

“The latest Indian action, at this moment of global health crisis, is particularly reprehensible as it seeks to take advantage of the international community’s focus on the ongoing Covid-19 pandemic and further advance BJP’s sinister, ‘Hindutva’ agenda,” the spokesperson remarked.

She said Pakistan has been consistently sensitising the international community about the BJP government’s designs for demographic change in IOJ&K to perpetuate India’s illegal occupation of the disputed territory, manifestly against the wishes and aspirations of the Kashmiri people.

The spokesperson urged the United Nations and the international community to take immediate cognisance of the Indian action, prevent India from changing the demography of the occupied territory, and hold India accountable for its persistent violations of international law. She reiterated Pakistan’s resolve to continue highlighting India’s state terrorism in IOJ&K, and its denial of the fundamental freedoms and inalienable right to self-determination of the Kashmiri people. “No matter what its tactics, India will never be able to break the will of the Kashmiri people.”