Pakistan rejects India’s objection to AJK polls

ISLAMABAD: The Indian charge d’affaires was summoned to the Foreign Office on Friday to protest the comments made by a spokesperson for the Indian Ministry of External Affairs over the recently-held elections in Azad Kashmir (AJK), and completely reject India’s sham protest and to reiterate Pakistan’s clear and consistent position on Jammu and Kashmir dispute.

“Pakistan categorically rejects the false, untenable and self-serving comments made by the spokesperson for the Indian Ministry of External Affairs on the recently concluded elections in the Azad State of Jammu and Kashmir,” the Foreign Office said on Friday.

India, it added, could not hide the fact that it was in illegal occupation of parts of Jammu and Kashmir. To perpetuate its occupation of the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu & Kashmir (IIOJK), New Delhi had committed horrendous human rights violations against innocent Kashmiris over the past seven decades, and particularly since Aug 5, 2019.

”While the people of AJK enjoy the fruits of free and participatory electoral process, IIOJK bleeds under India’s illegal occupation. The Jammu and Kashmir dispute between Pakistan and India has been on the agenda of the UN Security Council since 1948. It remains an internationally recognised dispute,” said the FO.

Earlier, a spokesman at the Indian Ministry of External Affairs had dubbed the elections as a “cosmetic exercise”. “India’s illegal actions of 5 August 2019, seeking to unilaterally alter the internationally recognised disputed status of Jammu and Kashmir and India’s illegal steps to change the occupied territory’s demographic structure, contravene several UN Security Council resolutions,” said the FO.

The Security Council has clearly delineated the principle that the final disposition of the State of Jammu and Kashmir will be made in accordance with the will of the people expressed through the democratic method of a free and impartial plebiscite conducted under the auspices of the United Nations.

Pakistan asked India to immediately end its illegal occupation of parts of Jammu and Kashmir, stop its egregious violations of the human rights in IIOJK, and take steps for immediate and full implementation of the UNSC resolutions on the Jammu and Kashmir dispute.

Later, while commenting on the remarks made by the spokesperson for the Indian Ministry of External Affairs (MEA), the spokesperson stated, “We reject the gratuitous, unwarranted and baseless remarks made by the spokesperson for the Indian MEA. India has no locus standi on the matter whatsoever.”

Jammu and Kashmir, it said, is an internationally recognised dispute. Parts of the state of Jammu and Kashmir are under illegal Indian occupation. The Jammu and Kashmir dispute is the oldest item on the agenda of the United Nations Security Council, pending resolution due to Indian intransigence.

“Regurgitation of false and fabricated claims by India does not change the reality that it is India which is in illegal occupation of parts of Jammu and Kashmir for more than seven decades. Jammu and Kashmir never was and never will be so-called ‘integral part’ of India”, it added.

”India must immediately end its illegal occupation of parts of Jammu and Kashmir, stop its egregious violations of human rights in IIOJK, and take steps for full implementation of the relevant UNSC resolutions on the Jammu and Kashmir dispute,” cautioned the Foreign Office.