THE National Assembly (NA) of Pakistan on Thursday unanimously passed a resolution to denounce the latest attempt at demographic engineering in India Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), through the ‘Delimitation Commission’ constituted in March 2020.
The Assembly expressed grave concern over the series of illegal measures taken by the Indian occupation forces to change the demographics of the territory, in violation of international law, “particularly the Fourth Geneva Convention and relevant resolutions of the United Nations Security Council (UNSC)”.
The Assembly, which represents the will of the nation, has done well in taking prompt notice of machinations by the BJP Government to change demography of the disputed territory as part of its strategy to perpetuate India’s illegal occupation of the region.
Apart from delimitation, India has also changed residency laws allowing non-Kashmiris to settle in the Occupied Kashmir in an attempt to turn the Muslim majority into minority with the passage of time.
Such plans and efforts have repeatedly been brought to the attention of the international community including the United Nations.
The new plan is aimed at converting the Muslim majority region into a minority, and further marginalizing, disenfranchising and disempowering the Kashmiri population of IIOJK and that is why it has been rejected by all political parties of the region.
According to former Chief Minister of the occupied territory Mahbooba Mufti the delimitation exercise is done for furtherance of BJP agenda as the Delimitation Commission has shown no regard for law and Constitution.
She noted that the majority community has been disempowered and in a sense disenfranchised.
As a consequence of delimitation, seats of Hindu-dominated Jammu have been increased from the previous 37 to 43 while those of Kashmir remain static at 47, which is clearly an attempt to dilute the influence of the majority.
India must realize that the Jammu and Kashmir is an internationally recognized dispute and no façade of ‘elections’ based on a sham ‘delimitation’ exercise can substitute the legitimacy and indispensability of a free and impartial plebiscite as has been guaranteed to the people of Jammu and Kashmir by relevant UN resolutions.
All attempts aimed at hoodwinking the international public opinion are bound to backfire in the face of stiff resistance by Kashmiris, who are the main stakeholders in the dispute.
