G20 Summit in Kashmir Pak Objection: Lalit k kaul

 

G20 (2023) Summit in Kashmir: Pakistan Objects                                                                        Lalit K Kaul

“Politics is Art of the Possible”, but irrationality and incongruity are not. Yet, Pakistan's leadership strives very hard or may be that it comes naturally to them to combine the three and therefore Pakistan politics is always ingrained with irrationality and absurdity.

What's Pakistan's Objection:

Their Foreign Affairs Ministry has said,” Kashmir is a disputed territory at the UN level and therefore G20 summit can't be held there".

The FM of Pakistan, Sri Bilawal Bhutto, should know that “Kashmir" isn't a disputed territory at the UN level. India didn't take just Kashmir Valley to the UNSC, but the entire territory as ruled by the then Maharaja, Sri Hari Singh. The territory included geographical entities Jammu, Kashmir, Gilgit and Baltistan, etc. Mr. Bhutto as also the PM of Pakistan, Mr. Shehbaz Sharif,  should know that India went to the UNSC with the consent of Pakistan and that consent had been secured by Mr. Louis Mountbatten from Pakistan's then political leadership. Therefore, Pakistan is an accomplice in India’s decision to let the UN resolve the dispute created by barbarism unleashed by Pak forces in association with the various tribes in the mountainous regions that were separated by river Jhelum from Pakistan. The aggression by Pakistan violated the “Standstill Agreement” that she had signed with Sri Hari Singh. That Pakistan defaulted on the UN Resolutions is a historical fact, no matter how hard Pakistan may try to hide it under the cover of their irrational narratives that only make Pakistan a laughing stock.

The Incongruous Objection that betrays Pakistan's Hypocrisy:

Pakistan's leadership suffers from a deep rooted complex in that they believe that twisting of facts that tantamount to  political chicanery is going to yield them the results they aspire for. Therefore, they have been consistently reducing the issue of the entire erstwhile princely state of J&K to that of Kashmir with the added claim that the region under their jurisdiction is an independent sovereign state and call it “Azad Kashmir". The incongruity in that name is that there's nothing common between it and the Kashmir Valley – be it cultural, linguistic, social and racial.

The plight of Gilgit Baltistan is too tragic a tale of woes of their people and their exploitation by the Punjabi overlords of Pakistan.

So, their invented narrative makes them bold enough to declare that “Kashmir" is a disputed territory; by implication it means that entire Jammu region is not and that in itself is irreconcilable in context of the UN Resolutions.

Since the case in the UNSC is about the erstwhile princely state of J&K that had acceded to India, therefore, Pakistan had no jurisdiction to allow Chinese to do projects like CPEC under BRI, in the regions under their control. Pakistan has also given a portion of “AJK" to Chinese for infrastructural development works; under a mutual agreement that acknowledges the area to be disputed and goes on to record that the infrastructure shall be the property of either of the parties to the dispute, based upon the outcome of the UN supervised solution of the same.

So, while Pakistan admits of “AJK" as a disputed territory, yet she exercises all her writ in the region as if it was her indisputably integral part! While she maintains the narrative of “Azad Kashmir”!

G20 Art 370 and CPEC:

How communal politics based on religious bigotry can impede rational thinking becomes clear when Pakistan's leadership makes noises about and objects to the act of India in abrogation of Art 370 and 35A on 5^th August, 2019. In context of the UNSC Resolutions, one may say that for the region under India's jurisdiction; the Indian leadership devised a political arrangement with its politics leadership under which it would govern itself; that was the internal arrangement which didn't impinge on the UNSC Resolutions and Pakistan wasn't and couldn't have been a party to the said agreement as she had no business in there. Therefore, to make noises about the abrogation and ban trade with India symbolized impeded mental thinking of Pakistan's leadership nurtured by irrational and absurd narratives, built over 75 years of her existence, on so called disputed “Kashmir” of their imagination. Banning trade is now terribly hurting Pakistan's economy.

Similarly holding G20 summit in Kashmir Valley doesn't violate any UNSC Resolutions and nor does its new status as Union Territory. Pakistan's leadership need to renounce religious prism and understand that none of the acts of the GOI have caused any demographic change in the region governed by it; in context of the UNSC Resolutions and so there are no outsiders having been settled in the area unlike Pakistan which has totally changed demography of the area under her control and that is in direct violation of the UNSC Resolutions. Yet, Pakistan speaks about UN based resolution of invented “Kashmir” problem!

Allowing China to develop infrastructure under CPEC is in direct violation of the UNSC Resolutions because Pakistan is required to ensure that no outsider is a resident of the region under their control before India does her part to facilitate UN supervised Plebiscite . Can Pakistan get the region cleared of the Chinese? Can Pakistan ask China to give back the territory ceded to her? In both cases the answer is No. Why? Because Pakistan is so indebted to China and is hugely under debt of China that she doesn't have the freedom to make her writ run.

What's the Choice for Pakistan to make?

She must give up on the invented claim of “Kashmir” problem; come clean with her own people on how irresolvable the matter, pending in the UN, of erstwhile princely state of J&K that had acceded to India because Pakistan violated “Standstill Agreement” with Sri Hari Singh, is. Why it's irresolvable? Because in last 75 years Pakistan has made it more and more difficult for her to comply with the UNSC Resolutions And compliance by Pakistan is the first step towards holding of plebiscite in the region.

India understood how infructuous the UNSC Resolutions had become:

It was all courtesy Pakistan that India played the master stroke of carving out two union territories from the J&K monolith. There is no way plebiscite can be held because there is no way Pakistan can restore status quo anti as it existed the day India declared ceasefire. Therefore, in the interest of Pakistani people, the Pakistan's leadership should refrain from political chicanery and instigating Kashmiri youth to take up arms because 1) no world power is paying any heed to rantings of Pakistan because they all have understood Pakistan's dishonest intent and 2) Indian State can handle insurgents and terrorists whatever be the costs.