ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Sunday rejected as incorrect and legally untenable the political maps of India issued by the country’s home ministry displaying the disputed Jammu and Kashmir region and seeking to depict parts of Gilgit-Baltistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir within the territorial jurisdiction of India.

According to a Foreign Office statement, the maps issued by the Indian home ministry on Nov 2 were incorrect, legally untenable, void and in complete violation of the relevant United Nations Security Council Resolutions.

Pakistan rejects these political maps, which are incompatible with the United Nations maps, the Foreign Office spokesman said.

He said that no step by India could change the disputed status of Jammu and Kashmir as recognised by the United Nations.

He said such measures by the government in Delhi could not prejudice the inalienable right to self-determination of the people of India-held Jammu and Kashmir.

No such step can change the disputed status of Jammu and Kashmir as recognised by UN

Pakistan would continue supporting the legitimate struggle of the people of India-held Jammu and Kashmir for exercising their right to self-determination in accordance with the relevant UN Security Council Resolutions, he added.

In Multan, Kashmir Committee chairman Syed Fakhar Imam said that Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi was going against his country’s constitution on Kashmir issue as stripping of the territory’s special status on Aug 5, was an unwise and unjust decision.

Talking to journalists, he said the Indian premier was facing internal differences on the special status issue. He said that 100,000 Kashmiris had laid down their lives for the cause of independence, adding that Indian forces had so far picked up to 1.3 million youth in held Kashmir whose whereabouts were unknown.

“Kashmir is the future of Pakistan, and the hearts of Pakistanis and Kashmiris throb together,” the Kashmir Committee chairman said and quoted the Quaid-i-Azam as saying Pakistan is incomplete without Kashmir.

Mr Imam said that Kashmir was Pakistan’s jugular vein, adding that Pakistan Tehreek-i-Insaf’s (PTI) leadership had raised the issue at every forum of the world.

He recalled that the parliament of France had also discussed the Kashmir issue while US congressmen posed hard questions to Assistant Secretary of State Alice Wells on the issue.

“It is a disputed territory for the last 72 years,” he said.

The government and opposition were on the same page on Kashmir issue, he said. “Parliament has unanimously adopted a resolution on the Kashmir issue.”

He recalled that Prime Minister Imran Khan delivered a 50-minute speech in the United Nations and advocated Kashmir issue in a way which was praised worldwide.

Another representative of the PTI government, MNA Asad Umar, reiterated that the government would continue supporting the just cause of Kashmiris till they achieved their right to self-determination.

Pakistan is committed to highlighting the suppression of Kashmiris at all world forums, he was quoted as saying in a radio programme.

Talking about Azadi march being held in Islamabad for the last three days, he said that instead of holding a protest against the government, JUI-F chief Maulana Fazlur Rehman should visit countries around the globe to apprise world leaders about the Kashmir situation.

Published in Dawn, November 4th, 2019