Pakistan’s claim on J&K POK and Gilgit Baltistan is untenable: Lalit K Kaul

 

Pakistan’s claim on J&K POK and Gilgit Baltistan is untenable

Lalit K Kaul

The political bosses, establishment and the heads of madrasas in Pakistan have been selling the narrative on J&K/Kashmir created out of thin air (that is: occurring in or invented for fiction). Having managed a moth eaten geographical area for Pakistan, Jinnah turned his focus on how to ensure blisters inflicted body of emerging young Indian Nation, but did not succeed except for fomenting trouble in the erstwhile princely state of J&K - which had acceded to the Indian Union under the Government of India Act, 1935- by converting it in to a disputed territory between India and Pakistan.

The backstabbing game:

It is known historically that Louis Mountbatten persuaded Nehru ji to the J&K issue to the UN with an assurance that since India had a strong case, the UN was bound to give decision in her favour. Yet, the UK representative in the UN in performing the act of backstabbing/ betrayal - insofar as India was concerned - questioned the very legality of the princely State’s accession to India that had been accomplished under the British Paramountcy law, but in the end the UN Resolutions were framed which laid out the route to fair plebiscite in the territory on the question of accession to India or Pakistan and another option made available to the people of the region was that of an Independent Sovereign State of J&K. Pakistan moved an amendment to restrict the choice to only India or Pakistan and India readily obliged.

Plebiscite (post accession to India) in J&K was not acceptable to Jinnah and Sheikh:

The Indian National Congress (INC) had always stood for accession of Princely States through peoples’ will and not that of the Kings. Nehru Patel combine never wavered from that path/ideal. Jinnah was offered by the Indian leadership that plebiscite be held in Junagadh, Hyderabad and J&K, but Jinnah refused. Similarly while Nehru ji was set upon holding referendum in J&K even post accession, both Jinnah and Sheikh Mohammad Abdullah developed cold feet.

Selling Kashmir to India is the latest narrative of Pak Opposition:

Reorganization of the erstwhile State of the J&K and Ladakh in to two union territories namely, J&K and Ladakh in August 2019 was the political master stroke that shook the political leadership and commentators including the madrasa Moulvis and organizations of Pakistan from their very roots.  

It also shocked those in India who had been on the pay rolls of Pakistan and had done her bidding to dehumanize and traumatize Kashmiri society. 

So all the political parties, madrasa Moulvis and religious organizations spontaneously accused/charged their PM of having sold Kashmir to India! Not that the predecessors of Imran Khan who had ruled over Pakistan since her birth had anything worthwhile to show as the progress in the direction ensuring impending merger of the territory with Pakistan, just that enough noises on the issue had been made by them in the International Forums but to no avail; arguably Imran Khan’s progress report in this matter could not have been criticized.

While Pakistan had not been a signatory to awarding of special status to the erstwhile State of J&K, yet Imran Khan lodged protests against the Indian government decision to revoke Art 370 and 35A. So in an act of desperation to assuage the public feelings the Pakistan’s government redrew the political map of Pakistan to include the entire erstwhile princely State of J&K as her integral territory. 

The terror groups were gathered to cross the border with India to have media attention and also for public consumption. The anti climax was PM Imran Khan dissuading them from crossing the border on a promise that the march to the other side of the border would be properly planned. Imran Khan’s government also declared holding of plebiscite in POK/AJK; while the opposition parties looked the other way. To dramatize the so called “Kashmir Problem” intervention of the US President was sought for mediating between India and Pakistan, but to no avail.

The Laughable Claim: 

That rhetoric that “Kashmir” is “lifeline of Pakistan” continues to be since the day Jinnah committed the political blunder of 20^th century by demanding separate independent State for Muslims. The entire Pak population was brainwashed in to thinking that without “Kashmir” the political map of Pakistan was not complete. The issue was also communalized and terror groups were groomed to wage Jihad on Kafir India for annexing “Kashmir”. Pakistan in her wisdom waged three direct wars, post 1947 misadventure, in 1965, 1971 and 1999; while funding of terrorism across the LOC continued since 1990, under operation Topac. All turned out to be great misadventures of Pakistan as in 1965 war the Indian army reached Icchugul Canal waiting for orders to enter Lahore; in 1971 war Pakistan was cut in to two pieces and had to face humiliation of 90,000 army personnel surrendering to General Jagjit Singh Arora; the humiliation in Kargil war was such that Pakistan disowned dead bodies of their soldiers.

So, without securing “lifeline” through wars and Jihad Pakistan ended up being a fragmented and humiliated State. Yet the “lifeline” rhetoric continues to be.

Pakistan’s achievements in regard to her “lifeline”:

Pakistan succeeded in traumatizing and dehumanizing her “lifeline” by waging Jihad in the erstwhile State of J&K beginning 1990 under operation Topac. Pakistan was assisted in their criminal objective by their paid agents in India like the so called Hurriat and the “mainstream” political parties like PDP, JKNC, JK Congress and People’s Congress et al.

The armed locals were fooled in to believing that once the capital city of the erstwhile J&K State, Srinagar had been kept under siege by them for a few days, Pakistan’s army would attack India and “Kashmir” would be liberated from India to be a part of Pakistan!

The net result obtained was to have a communally divided Kashmiri society; thousands of Kashmiri locals killed by gun wielding terrorists and lacs of Kashmiri Pandits rendered homeless. Yet Pakistan’s “lifeline” claim does not cease to be and this is ultimate in political prostitution.

Like Pakistan’s political leadership- while respectable people like Air Chief Marshall Asgar Ali Khan always maintained that India never started any war with Pakistan-  always denied that they had initiated all the wars against India; similarly they have been denying their role in terrorism unleashed across the border.

Pakistan blocked resolution of the problem created by her:

Pakistan’s leadership violated the Standstill Agreement with the Maharaja Hari Singh, attacked the erstwhile Princely State thereby inhibiting the Maharaja from taking an independent decision about the political future of his kingdom in a free environment and all these avoidable sequence of events led to the UN Resolution on J&K. Because of Pakistan the UN had to step in to decide on the future political status of the erstwhile princely State of J&K and yet it is Pakistan that defaulted on implementing what the UN resolution had required of her to do for facilitating free and fair plebiscite in the J&K including Ladakh, POK and Gilgit Baltistan.

For ready reference relevant portions of the UN resolution are reproduced here:

The UN resolution for Plebiscite in J&K:

“Recommends to the Governments of India and Pakistan the following measures as those which in the opinion of the Council are appropriate to bring about a cessation of the fighting and to create proper conditions for a free and impartial plebiscite to decide whether the State of Jammu and Kashmir is to accede to India or Pakistan:

 A.      Restoration of peace and order

1.       The Government of Pakistan should undertake to use its best endeavours:

(a)    To ensure the withdrawal from the State of Jammu and Kashmir of tribesmen and Pakistani nationals not normally resident therein who have entered the State for the purpose of fighting, and to prevent any intrusion in to the State of such elements and any furnishing of material aid to those fighting in the State;

(b)   To make known to all concerned that the measures indicated in this and the following paragraphs provide full freedom to all subjects of the State, regardless of creed, caste, or party to express their views and to vote on the question of the accession of the State, and that therefore they should co-operate in the maintenance of peace and order.

 

2.       The Government of India should:

When it is established to the satisfaction of the Commission set up in accordance with the Council’s resolution 39 (1948) that the tribesmen are withdrawing and that arrangements for cessation of fighting have become effective, put in to operation in consultation with the Commission a plan for withdrawing their own forces from Jammu and Kashmir and reducing them progressively to the minimum strength required for the support of the civil power in the maintenance of law and order;”

Following 2(a) there are many administrative measures that were to be undertaken for facilitating plebiscite in the J&K state. The moot point to be observed here is that India was to comply with the UN directives only after Pakistan had complied with 1.(a) & (b). Pakistan never fulfilled her role to enable people to vote for their choice and yet noises are/were regularly made by her leaders in all international forums for implementation of the UN resolutions. This is the farce of Pakistan. Nothing better could have been expected of a Nation founded on the basis of irrationality feeding hatred for Hindus.

Pakistan disgraced in International Arena:

All along Pakistan has been seeking resolution of the so called “Kashmir” problem through the UN resolution, having not honoured her part of the responsibility as brought out in the aforesaid lines. It can’t get more ridiculous than this. The success story of Pakistan has been brainwashing her people in to believing that India is not honouring the UN resolutions and this has been achieved through the madrasa education imparted by the Moulvis and Pakistan being an Islamic State the writ of Moulvis runs beyond question. In Pakistan the PMs have been puppets in the hands of the Establishment and therefore the media dare not go against the concocted theory invented on the status of what they like to call “Indian held Kashmir”. So the media runs debates on how Indian forces have occupied “Kashmir” and how “Muslim brethrens” are being oppressed and prosecuted by the “Indian Occupiers”.

Pakistan has been snubbed a number of times by the international community including the OIC on the so called “Kashmir” issue because it is known who the defaulter is insofar as the UN resolutions are concerned. Again, post Shimla Agreement between India and Pakistan in 1972, the UN resolutions have become Infructuous and the UN no longer has “Kashmir Problem” on its agenda.

The desperation is such that Pakistan dared to defy the Kingdom of Saudi Arabia on “Kashmir Issue” and ended up in huge embarrassment internationally.

The New Rhetoric of Pak Media:

That India is an Economic Power and the World pays heed to her, it is the latest act of genius by her media to mislead the Pakistanis on “Kashmir Issue”.

Pakistan’s media forgets that until the end of the 20^th century the Indian economy was in a bad shape though it had started picking up post its globalization and liberalization in 1990. The UN resolutions were passed in 1948 and until the year 2000, in a span of 52 years the Pakistan’s propaganda of solving the “Kashmir Issue” through the UN resolutions did not cut any ice with any country in the world including the member countries of the OIC because the whole world including the UN knew that Pakistan had not honoured the Resolution and was indulging in mere rhetoric. Some Muslim countries may have raised “Kashmir issue” as a matter of routine in order to keep brother Muslim country, Pakistan, in good humour. Therefore all the blame that is put on India is only for their internal public consumption that comprises Jihadis, terror groups and the religious heads.

The things have come to such a pass that some world leaders have started directly snubbing Pakistan on “Kashmir Issue” and advised her to hand over POK/AJK and Gilgit Baltistan to India.

What Realization?

The realization that should dawn on Pakistan’s leadership is that while “politics is the art of the possible” yet falsehood cannot be the basis for any political campaign for or against another Nation because it only earns disgrace and which Pakistan has accrued limitlessly. In nurturing enmity against India (on a religious doctrine: Kafir) Pakistan has ended up being handmaiden of the US; a colony of China, an unwanted neighbour of Afghanistan and the one to be kicked around by the economically powerful Arab countries.

If Pakistan has to survive as a sovereign entity then she must begin to negate the Jinnah Doctrine and realize that religion can’t be the foundation for a country else, there are real chances that she may implode. The TLP’s attitude, the TTP and other terror groups do not portend well for the very existence of Pakistan.