IIOJK special status: Pakistan rejects Indian SC verdict on Article 370
- Caretaker Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jillani says New Dehli’s goal is to convert the Kashmiris into a disempowered community in their own land
Pakistan rejected on Monday Indian Supreme Court’s verdict regarding special status for the state of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) and said that New Dehli’s goal is to convert the Kashmiris into a disempowered community in their own land.
Caretaker Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jillani in a presser said that Pakistan does not acknowledge the supremacy of the Indian Constitution over Azad Jammu and Kashmir, addeding that “any process, subservient to the Indian Constitution, carries no legal significance”.
“The judgement cannot distract the world from New Delhi’s gross and systematic human rights violations in the occupied region.”
His statement comes after India’s Supreme Court upheld on Monday a 2019 decision by the government of Prime Minister Narendra Modi to revoke special status for the state of IIOJK and set a deadline of September 30 next year for state polls to be held.
The unanimous order by a panel of five judges came in response to more than a dozen petitions challenging the revocation and a subsequent decision to split the region into two federally administered territories.
The court said special status was a temporary constitutional provision that could be revoked by parliament. It also ordered that the federal territory should return to being a state at the earliest opportunity.
Meanwhile, in the presser, the caretaker FM said that Pakistan will continue to extend its full political, diplomatic and moral support to the people of IIOJK “for the realisation of their inalienable right to self-determination”.
“India cannot abdicate its international obligations on the pretext of domestic legislations and judicial verdicts. Its plans to annex IIOJK are bound to fail.”
In August 2019, India revoked occupied Kashmir’s special status by repealing Article 370 of the constitution. The law had limited the power of the Indian parliament to impose laws in the state, apart from matters of defence, foreign affairs and communications.
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