MEHBOOBA Mufti of India-occupied Kashmir’s People’s Democratic Party has warned if Article 370, which guarantees special status to Jammu and Kashmir, is done away with, the state’s relation with India would be over.

Her retort was stimulated by an Indian minister’s outburst: “Article 35 A was surreptitiously included in the Indian Constitution. It was a historical blunder committed by Jawaharlal Nehru”.

Actually the historical and legal blunder was ‘accession to India’ by the so-called constituent assembly. To forestall the fraudulent accession by the puppet assembly, the UN Security Council passed two resolutions — No 9 of March 30, 1951, and confirmatory Resolution No 122 of March 24, 1957.

These resolutions outlawed accession or any other action to change status of the Jammu and Kashmir state. For one thing, even ‘accession instrument’ is a myth, unregistered with the UN.

AG Noorani says (Dawn August 11, 1998) “This will take the disputed state back to a quasi-sovereign status, with its own prime minister and president. The state subjects of disputed Kashmir will cease to be citizens of India and entry of Indian nationals into Kashmir will be restricted. The goods from India will have to pass through a customs barrier and pay an import duty. And above all, the people of Jammu and Kashmir will not be legally obliged to uphold the integrity and sovereignty of India. The comic irony will be that separatists will become mainstream overnight!”

The time is ripe for Kashmiris to review Kashmir-India relation and annul the so-called accession, stay standstill or accede to Pakistan, and then, review relation with Pakistan also in keeping with Pakistan’s constitution Article: 257: “When the people of the state of Jammu and Kashmir decide to accede to Pakistan, the relationship between Pakistan and that state shall be determined in accordance with the wishes of the people of that state.”

Amjed Jaaved
Rawalpindi

Published in Dawn, April 17th, 2019