KATHMANDU, Dec 13: Pakistan has rejected the verdict of the Supreme Court of India on the status of the Indian-held Jammu and Kashmir.

Pakistan has said that Jammu and Kashmir is an internationally-recognized dispute, which remains on the agenda of the UN Security Council for over seven decades. The final disposition of Jammu and Kashmir is to be made in accordance with the relevant UN Security Council resolution and as per the aspirations of the Kashmiri people, maintains Pakistan.

Pakistan has further said that India has no right to make unilateral decisions on the status of this disputed territory against the will of Kashmiri people and Pakistan.

Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs (MoFA) in a statement said that Pakistan does not acknowledge the supremacy of the Indian constitution over Jammu and Kashmir. “Any process, subservient to the Indian constitution, carries no legal significance. India cannot abdicate its international obligation in the pretext of domestic legislations and judicial verdicts,” the MoFA said, adding that India’s plans to annex Jammu and Kashmir are bound to fail.

A five-member Constitution bench of the Indian Supreme Court, headed by Chief Justice DY Chandrachud, unanimously upheld on Monday the abrogation of Articles 370 and 35A, noting that Article 370 was a temporary provision and that the erstwhile State of Jammu and Kashmir had no internal sovereignty.

In the apex court’s view, following the Instrument of Accession and the issuance of the Proclamation dated November 25, 1949, by which the Constitution of India was adopted, the State of Jammu and Kashmir did not retain any element of sovereignty. Article 370 was a feature of asymmetric federalism and not sovereignty, the apex court observed.

The Indian apex court also proclaimed that the concurrence of the State government was not required to apply the Indian Constitution to the State of Jammu and Kashmir. It is pertinent to mention that when Jammu and Kashmir’s special status was revoked by a Presidential Order in August 2019, the erstwhile State was under President’s rule, and it has since been a source of debate whether irreversible decisions could be made in the absence of an elected Legislative Assembly.

Pakistan alleged that India’s unilateral and illegal measures since August 5, 2019 have been aimed at changing the demographic structure and political landscape of Jammu and Kashmir. “Indian Supreme Court’s verdict fails to recognize the internationally-recognized disputed nature of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute. It further fails to cater to the aspirations of the Kashmiri people, who have already rejected India’s illegal and unilateral actions of 5 August 2019. The judgment is yet another manifestation of the pliant judiciary under India's ruling dispensation,” the statement charged further.

 
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