Pakistan challenges Indian Supreme Court’s Kashmir ruling in letter to UN, OIC and EU

Indian paramilitary soldiers patrol at the main market in Srinagar, Indian administered Kashmir on December 11, 2023. (AP)

• Jalil Abbas Jilani says domestic legislations or judicial verdicts cannot be invoked to address international disputes
• Pakistan’s FM calls India’s top court’s verdict a breach of international law and relevant United Nations resolutions

ISLAMABAD: Caretaker Foreign Minister Jalil Abbas Jilani has written letters to the top United Nations, Organization of Islamic Cooperation and European Union officials, confirmed his ministry on Saturday, bringing their attention to the recent judgment of the Indian Supreme Court over the status of Kashmir and questioning its legality.
India’s top court on Monday upheld New Delhi’s August 2019 decision to revoke the special constitutional status for the state of Jammu and Kashmir while setting a deadline of September 30 next year to hold local polls in the region.
Jilani noted in his letters that domestic legislations or judicial verdicts could not be invoked to determine the final status of an internationally recognized disputed territory like Kashmir which are subject to several UN resolutions.
According to the foreign office of Pakistan, he condemned the measures taken by the Indian authorities to consolidate their rule of the region which he maintained was leading to persistent suppression of the rights of its people.
“India’s illegal and unilateral actions of 5 August 2019, and a series of subsequent steps, are aimed at altering the demographic structure and political landscape of IIOJK [Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir],” Jilani was quoted as saying. “The clear goal of these unlawful steps is to convert Kashmiris into a disempowered community in their own land.”
The Pakistani foreign minister called the recent judgment of Indian Supreme Court “a breach of international law and relevant UN Security Council resolutions.”
“This endorsement of India’s unlawful measures cannot over-ride the provisions and prescriptions of the UN Security Council as contained in its resolutions on Jammu and Kashmir,” he added.
India’s only Muslim-majority region, Jammu and Kashmir has been at the heart of more than 75 years of animosity with Pakistan since the birth of the two nations in 1947 at independence from colonial rule by Britain.
Both countries claim the region in full, but only control parts of it.
Jilani urged the UN Security Council to ensure full implementation of its resolutions on Jammu and Kashmir dispute and ask India to end “the grave and systematic human rights violations” in the region while reversing its August 2019 decision.