Daily Times

Pakistan on Thursday summoned the Indian Charge d’Affaires (Cd’A) to the foreign ministry and handed over a demarche conveying the categorical rejection of the report of the so-called ‘Delimitation Commission’ for Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK).

The so-called commission was aimed at disenfranchising and disempowering the Muslim majority population of the IIOJK, the Foreign Office spokesperson said in a statement.

He said the Indian side conveyed that this entire exercise was farcical and had already been rejected by the cross-section of political parties in IIOJK. Through this effort, India only wanted to lend ‘legitimacy’ to its illegal actions of August 5, 2019, he added.

It was emphasized that the ulterior motive of the Indian government was evident from the fact that, under the garb of so-called delimitation, the representation of Muslims in the re-designated constituencies had been reduced to their disadvantage.

“This shattered the rationale pushed by the Indian Government that the ‘delimitation effort’ was aimed to ‘empower’ the local population. However, in reality, the new electoral boundaries would further disempower, marginalize and divide the people of the occupied territory. It would only pave the way for installing yet another puppet regime backed by the BJP-RSS combine,” it was conveyed.

It was underscored to the Indian Cd’A that the Jammu and Kashmir dispute was an internationally recognized dispute and a long-standing item on the agenda of the UN Security Council.

It was told that any illegal, unilateral and mischievous attempt by India to allow disproportionately higher electoral representation to the Hindu population to the detriment of the Muslim population, was a mockery of all norms of democracy, morality and India’s obligations under the UN Security Council Resolutions and international law.

It was also stressed that the Indian Government must refrain from bringing about any illegal demographic changes in the occupied territory, stop forthwith its oppression in the IIOJK, and let the Kashmiri people determine their own future through a free and fair plebiscite under the UN auspices as enshrined in the relevant United Nations Security Council resolutions.