Pakistan Can Keep Claiming Kashmir, India Can Simply Derecognize The British Drawn Radcliffe Line
India’s move to nullify Article 370 last year had taken the Pakistani State by total surprise. Knowing they could take no direct action against India, they did what they are best at. There was loud protest from Pakistan, with whom India’s ties were then at an all-time low following the standoff over the Pulwama terror attack. Then on the urgings of Pakistan, the move was also opposed by Pakistan’s “iron brother” ally China, which believed it would affect its territorial claims in Ladakh, as Aksai Chin region was part of Union Territory of Ladhak.
After running around in circle, now Pakistan is once again trying to raise the ante on the first anniversary of the revocation of Jammu and Kashmir’s special status, the Imran Khan government on Tuesday released a new political map of Pakistan showing the entire erstwhile state, now organised into two Union Territories, in Pakistan.
Pakistan forgets that they can keep claiming Kashmir and now most ridiculously even Junagadh, but India has claim over the entire Pakistan right up to the Durand Line or boundary with Afghanistan.
India has thus rightly described Khan’s antics as an “exercise in political absurdity”.The new map issued by Pakistan lays claim to the Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh, and Junagadh in Gujarat state, on the eve of the first anniversary of the scrapping of J&K’s special status.
By releasing the political map during a meeting in Islamabad attended by his cabinet and senior officials, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan he has made Pakistan a laughing stock for the rest of the World.
“These ridiculous assertions have neither legal validity nor international credibility. In fact, this new effort only confirms [the] reality of Pakistan’s obsession with territorial aggrandizement supported by cross-border terrorism,” said the Indian External Affairs ministry, adding that Islamabad uses terror as an instrument of state policy.
Pakistan’s new map includes the whole of the UT of Jammu & Kashmir as part of the country’s territory, describing it as “Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir” and a “disputed territory” whose final status is to be decided in line with UN Security Council resolutions. The boundary of Himachal Pradesh is depicted as the international border.
In a nod to China’s sensitivities, the map does not depict the Ladakh region, with a legend stating “frontier undefined”. An annotation on the map states the boundary in this area will be decided by “sovereign authorities concerned after the final settlement of the Jammu & Kashmir dispute”.
During the ceremony at which the map was unveiled, Pakistan’s foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi referred to the India-China border standoff in Ladakh and said Pakistan, too, has a view on the matter.
Qureshi also said the map includes Siachen glacier as part of Pakistan to challenge the region’s “illegal occupation by India”. He further said the map depicts the boundary in the disputed Sri Creek region of Gujarat according to Pakistan’s stated position on the issue to challenge India’s claim.
The map also depicts the Junagadh and Manavadar region of India’s Gujarat state as part of Pakistan. The nawab of Junagadh had opted to accede to Pakistan in September 1947, before fleeing from India with his family the following month.
Junagadh voted overwhelmingly to stay with India in a plebiscite held in the region in 1948. Experts believe Pakistan has no legal ground for claiming the region.
Union Territories.
Pakistan plans to observe August 5 as “Youm-e-Istehsal” (day of exploitation) and Khan is scheduled to go to Muzaffarabad, the capital of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), to deliver a speech. On Monday, Pakistan’s foreign and defence ministers visited areas along the Line of Control (LoC) to raise the Kashmir issue.
The Pakistani leadership has also attempted to mobilise support for its position on Kashmir from the country’s traditional allies, with only Turkish President Recep Tayyip Erdogan assuring Khan and President Arif Alvi of his country’s backing on the issue.
Academic Happymon Jacob, who closely tracks India-Pakistan relations, said Islamabad should “stop mouthing the worn-out platitude that it supports the Kashmiris’ right to self-determination”.
“It only seeks to wrest Kashmir from India,” he said, adding that making the LoC the international boundary “is the only solution available to either side”.
What the entire world should know that J&K and Ladhak are inseparable parts of India and no power on this Earth can get it separated from India. Pakistan, China or any other country should just stop dreaming regarding this.
Also to play the game further, India has to just say that the Radcliffe Line drawn by the British null and void and we no longer recognize this, thus staking claim over entire Pakistan. As it is Baluchistan is fighting to get itself freed from illegal occupation of Pakistan and so is Pakhtoonistan.
“We have seen a so-called ‘political map’ of Pakistan that has been released by PM Imran Khan. This is an exercise in political absurdity, laying untenable claims to territories in the Indian state of Gujarat and our Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and of Ladakh,” the government said in a statement, adding that these ridiculous assertions had neither legal validity nor international credibility. Like with some earlier formal maps, Pakistan’s new “official map” also included Junagadh and Manavadar in Gujarat.
“The new map has only brought to the fore the contradiction in Pakistan’s position, between calling Kashmir an unfinished agenda of partition and its right to self-determination rhetoric,” TCA Raghavan, former diplomat who served as India’s high commissioner to Pakistan, said.
“The (Pakistani) government has to show that it’s moving mountains on the first anniversary of the reorganisation of Jammu and Kashmir. It also has to do with their domestic issues,” he added, while calling it another case of misguided aspirations.
