Tag: Gilgit Baltistan election

On Eve of 2 Years of Article 370 Move, Pak Slams India For Not Allowing Visit of Foreign Scribes

In Delhi, the unofficial assessment was that if Pakistan really wanted to offer journalists from India a tour, it could have used other, ‘third-country’ routes.

New Delhi: Ahead of the two-year anniversary of the reading down of Article 370, Pakistan has criticised India for not allowing Delhi-based foreign journalists to travel through the Wagah border for a sponsored visit that includes a journey to Pakistan Occupied Kashmir’s legislative assembly.

Two of Pakistan’s ministers and the country’s National Security Advisor issued statements through their official Twitter accounts, criticising India for paying lip service to freedom of press.

There was no official response from India’s Ministry of Home Affairs, which handles immigration issues. However, sources indicated that the Wagah border was closed following COVID-19 protocol, with the only exception made for ‘diplomats’.

Pakistani foreign minister S.M. Qureshi tweeted that India had denied permission to cross to five international journalists, which is “another damning indication of shrinking space for free speech and independent journalism under a dictatorial regime”.


Qureshi only noted that the journalists were scheduled to travel to an “Azad Kashmir assembly”.

The visit, of course, would have coincided with the second year anniversary of the change in constitutional status of Jammu and Kashmir by reading down Article 370 and bifurcating the erstwhile state into two Union Territories.

Also read: Between the Lines of Pakistan’s Kashmir Rhetoric is an Opening for Diplomacy

Pakistan information minister Fawad Chaudhary tweeted that the journalists would have attended a special assembly on August 5.


NSA Moeed Yusuf stated that India’s actions were that of an “insecure government” which did not want the world to be able to compare the situation between the two parts of Kashmir.


In Delhi, the assessment was that if Pakistan really wanted to offer journalists from India a tour, it could have used other, ‘third-country’ routes.

The input from officials also pointed out that Pakistan had been the first to close down all borders and travel from India. There were also no appetite to help Islamabad score points in time for the Article 370 decision’s anniversary.

A week ago, India had slammed the elections held in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir as an effort to “camouflage its illegal occupation”.

Pakistan’s ruling party, Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf had won a simple majority in the 53-member legislative body, whose elections were held in July. 

Also read: Pakistan Finalises Law to Award Provisional Provincial Status to Gilgit-Baltistan: Report

“India has lodged a strong protest with the Pakistani authorities on this cosmetic exercise, which has been protested against and rejected by local people. Such an exercise can neither hide the illegal occupation by Pakistan nor the grave human rights violations, exploitation and denial of freedom to the people in these occupied territories,” MEA spokesperson Arindam Bagchi said.

Pakistan has also planned to inaugurate a new Kashmir Premier League on August 6, which will comprise teams from cities in Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir. India’s cricket association, BCCI, has directed other foreign boards to not allow their players to participate in the tournament. If foreign players do take part in the new league, it would impair their commercial work in India, BCCI instructed, as reported by Indian media.

India Lodges Protest Against Pakistan Supreme Court Order on Polls in Gilgit Baltistan  

‘India completely rejects such actions and continued attempts to bring material changes in Pakistan occupied areas of the Indian territory of Jammu & Kashmir,’ the MEA has said.

New Delhi: India on Monday protested against the Pakistan Supreme Court’s order last week allowing elections to be held in Gilgit Baltistan, by asserting that Pakistani institutions have “no locus standi on territories illegally and forcibly occupied by it”.

In line with the diplomatic protocol forced by guidelines on social distancing due to the coronavirus pandemic, a “strong protest” was registered by serving a démarche to the acting head of the Pakistani high commission in New Delhi through a phone call, as per sources.

On April 30, Pakistan’s apex court allowed the federal government’s application to amend the Government of Gilgit-Baltistan Order, 2018, to set up a caretaker government and conduct provincial assembly elections.

In a statement issued by the Ministry of External Affairs, India lodged a “strong protest” through the démarche, that “clearly conveyed that the entire Union Territories of Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh, including the areas of Gilgit and Baltistan, are an integral part of India by virtue of its fully legal and irrevocable accession”.

Asserting that Pakistan or its judiciary has “no locus standi” on these “illegally and forcibly occupied” territories, the statement noted:

“India completely rejects such actions and continued attempts to bring material changes in Pakistan occupied areas of the Indian territory of Jammu & Kashmir”.

Further, India asserted that Pakistan’s 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”.

Also read: India Rejects Reference to Kashmir in Pakistan-China Joint Statement

“Government of India’s position in the matter is reflected in the resolution passed by the Parliament in 1994 by consensus,” it added.

The Pakistani Supreme Court was approached by the Central government with the plea that the 2018 Order has no provision for appointment of a interim set up and holding assembly elections. The last elections in 2015 were held under Gilgit Baltistan Order of 2009.

The current term of the provincial government was scheduled to expire in June, with the current provisions providing a period of 60 days to hold an election.

In January 2019, Pakistan Supreme Court had explicitly extended its jurisdiction to Gilgit Baltistan in a written order on the province’s constitutional status.

India had also protested at that time, with the acting high commissioner Syed Haidar Shah summoned to the Ministry of External Affairs and personally given the protest note. This time, this was not possible considering the ongoing pandemic crisis.

The MEA statement last year had also made similar points that Pakistani supreme court had “no locus standi” and India rejected Pakistan’s efforts to make “material change” in Gilgit Baltistan.

India has always considered the whole of Kashmir as part of its own territory. In August 2019, India passed a constitutional amendment which removed the special autonomous status and truncated the state into two Union Territories, directly administered by the Central government.

In the fresh maps released in November 2019, the home ministry depicted Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (POK) as part of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. Gilgit Baltistan was put in the Union Territory of Ladakh.

Despite the pandemic situation, the two South Asian countries have continued to verbally spar and also exchange cross border firing over the line of control.

On the occasion of World Press Freedom Day on Sunday, Pakistan had highlighted the state of journalists in Kashmir, many of them facing police cases. Pakistan’s state of media freedom state is, however, not exemplary, with many journalists forced to go into exile and worse.