Pakistan rejects Indian parliament's legislation on Jammu Kashmir, dubs it ‘farce’

By Aamir Latif

KARACHI, Pakistan/NEW DELHI (AA) - Pakistan on Thursday rejected the Indian parliament's legislation on the future of the disputed Jammu and Kashmir, dubbing it a "farce."

India’s parliament on Wednesday passed the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganization (Amendment) Bill 2023 and the Jammu and Kashmir Reservation (Amendment) Bill 2023.

While the Reorganization (Amendment) Bill seeks to nominate two members from the migrant Kashmiri Hindus, known as Kashmiri Pandits, and one representing the displaced persons from Pakistan-administrated Kashmir to the legislative assembly in Srinagar, the Jammu and Kashmir reservation (Amendment) Bill seeks to provide reservation in jobs and admission to members of a "particular section of people."

“The decision by the Indian Parliament ... to pass a legislation about the future of IIOJK (Indian illegally occupied Jammu and Kashmir) is yet another farce to perpetuate India’s occupation and to deny the people of Jammu and Kashmir their right to self-determination,” Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry spokeswoman Mumtaz Zehra Baloch said at a news conference in the capital Islamabad.

“Jammu and Kashmir is an internationally-recognized disputed territory, whose final disposition is to be made under the United Nations Security Council resolutions and as per the aspirations of the Kashmiri people,” she stressed.

Any other process, she asserted, could not be a substitute for the Kashmiri people's right to self-determination.

In Aug. 2019, India revoked the decades-long semi-autonomous status of the erstwhile princely state, prompting Pakistan to downgrade its diplomatic mission in New Delhi, and halt trade.

Kashmir is held by India and Pakistan in parts and claimed both in full. A small sliver of Kashmir is also held by China.

Since they were partitioned in 1947, the two countries have fought three wars -- in 1948, 1965, and 1971 -- two of them over Kashmir.

Some Kashmiri groups in Jammu and Kashmir have been fighting against Indian rule for independence, or unification with neighboring Pakistan.