ISLAMABAD: Pakistan has categorically rejected the Indian government's illegal amendments to land ownership laws in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) and asked the world community to take immediate action to stop India from changing the demography.

“The highly condemnable Indian action is yet another clear violation of the UN Security Council resolutions, bilateral agreements between Pakistan and India, and international law,” Foreign Office spokesperson Zahid Hafeez Chaudhri said in a statement, while categorically rejecting the illegal amendments in land ownership laws promulgated under “J-K Re-organisation (Adaptation of Central Laws) Third Order, 2020.”

He said that the IIOJK is an internationally recognised dispute under the relevant UN Security Council (UNSC) Resolutions and international law.

He said that India’s illegal and unilateral actions of 5 August 2019, and subsequent measures, particularly the domicile law and now the land ownership laws, are aimed at changing the demographic structure of IIOJK to convert the Kashmiris into a minority in their own land. Changing the demographic structure of the occupied territory is a violation of the 4th Geneva Convention and constitutes war crime, he added.

“All these measures and laws, lacking legal and moral legitimacy, are forced upon the oppressed people of IIOJK through the barrel of the gun with an unprecedented military siege in the most militarized zone in the world,” the spokesperson said.

He also reiterated that such steps can neither change the disputed nature of IIOJK, recognised as such by the United Nations and the international community, nor can they prejudice the inalienable right to self-determination of the Kashmiri people.

He called upon the United Nations and the international community to take immediate action to stop India from changing the demography and distinct identity of IIOJK and facilitate resolution of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute as per the relevant UNSC Resolutions and the wishes of the Kashmiri people.

Copyright Business Recorder, 2020