FILE PHOTO: Security forces personnel stand guard next to concertina wire laid across a road during restrictions after the government scrapped Article 370, granting special status for Kashmir
India on Tuesday slammed the resolution passed by Pakistan National Assembly on the ‘delimitation exercise in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir’ and said that it has ‘no locus standi to pronounce on or interfere in matters that are internal to India’.
Responding to media queries, Ministry of External Affairs spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said: “We categorically reject the farcical resolution passed by the National Assembly of Pakistan on the subject of the delimitation exercise in the Indian Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.”
Noting that Pakistan has no locus standi to pronounce on or interfere in matters that are internal to India, he said that the entire territory of the UT of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh has been, is and shall always remain an integral part of India, including the Indian territories under “Pakistan’s illegal and forcible occupation”.
Delimitation in the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir is a democratic exercise based on the principles of extensive stakeholder consultation and participation. “It is regrettable that instead of putting their own house in order, the leadership in Pakistan continues to interfere in India’s internal affairs and engage in baseless and provocative anti-India propaganda,” Bagchi said.
Hitting out at Pakistan, the MEA spokesperson further stated: “We reiterate that Pakistan must immediately cease anti-India cross-border terrorism and shut down its infrastructure of terrorism; stop the grave and persistent human rights violations in Pakistan-occupied Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh (PoJKL); refrain from effecting any further material changes in the status of PoJKL; and vacate the Indian territories that are under its illegal and forcible occupation.”
Recently on May 12, the Pakistan parliamentary body National Assembly passed a resolution against the delimitation exercise in J&K.
Following the abrogation of Article 370 in August 2019, dividing the erstwhile state of Jammu and Kashmir into two union territories, the Delimitation Commission was appointed to redraw the assembly constituencies of J&K.
On May 5, the Commission submitted its report, recommending 90 assembly constituencies in the Union Territory. Of the 93 seats, 43 are for Jammu and 47 for Kashmir region; earlier it was 37 seats for Jammu while the Kashmir Valley had 46 seats.
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