India on Monday served a démarche to Pakistan protesting against an order by the Supreme Court of the neighbouring country allowing the conduct of elections in Gilgit-Baltistan.
New Delhi reiterated that Gilgit-Baltistan was part of two Union Territories of India - Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh. India also asked Pakistan to vacate the J&K territories it illegally occupied.
Pakistan too retaliated and rejected what it called “baseless and fallacious contention” of India.
The Supreme Court of Pakistan recently allowed the government of the neighbouring country to amend a 2018 administrative order to conduct general elections in the region. The Gilgit-Baltistan Order of 2018 provided for administrative changes, including authorizing the Prime Minister of Pakistan to legislate on a range of subjects.
The officials of the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) conveyed to a senior diplomat of the High Commission of Pakistan in New Delhi that the entire Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh, including the areas of Gilgit and Baltistan, were an integral part of India by virtue of its fully legal and irrevocable accession. “The Government of Pakistan or its judiciary has no locus standi on territories illegally and forcibly occupied by it. India completely rejects such actions and continued attempts to bring material changes in Pakistan occupied areas of the Indian territory of Jammu and Kashmir,” New Delhi conveyed to Islamabad.
The MEA officials told the senior diplomat of the Pakistan High Commission that Pakistan should immediately vacate all areas of India’s J&K and Ladakh of its illegal occupation.
“Such actions can neither hide the illegal occupation of parts of Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh by Pakistan nor the grave human rights violations, exploitation and denial of freedom to the people residing in Pakistan occupied territories for the past seven decades,” India noted in its démarche. “The position of the Government of India in the matter is reflected in the resolution passed by the Parliament in 1994 by consensus.”