Former President of Azad Jammu and Kashmir and ex-Pakistani envoy Sardar Masood Khan has said India cannot alter the internationally recognized disputed status of Jammu and Kashmir through cartography, unilateral declarations or domestic laws.  Sardar Masood Khan said India’s insistence on showing Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir including Ladakh as its territory on maps was “self-contradictory,” as India itself had voted for a UN General Assembly resolution on more accurate and equitable cartography. 

He said the resolution, passed with 164 votes in favour, was only meant to correct geographical projections and was not intended to settle territorial disputes. “India’s attempt to link the cartographic resolution with its territorial claims over Jammu and Kashmir is therefore irrelevant,” he stated.  Sardar Masood Khan stressed that Jammu and Kashmir remains a disputed territory, with the Line of Control separating Azad Jammu and Kashmir, Gilgit-Baltistan and IIOJK, and with UNMOGIP still present on the ground.

He noted that around a dozen UN Security Council resolutions, including Resolutions 47, 91 and 122, establish that the final status of Jammu and Kashmir must be decided through a UN-sponsored plebiscite in accordance with the aspirations of the Kashmiri people.  Citing UN archives, he said official UN-recognized maps continue to depict Jammu and Kashmir as disputed. He rejected India’s claim that it is an “internal matter,” warning the unresolved dispute could become a “powder keg” in South Asia. He urged Pakistan to intensify diplomatic outreach at the UN, Human Rights Council, and with the international media and Kashmiri diaspora to counter attempts to “rewrite or erase” the legal and historical reality of Kashmir. 

Credit: Independent News Pakistan (INP)