What is Pakistan’s affidavit, invoked by Rajnath Singh, that called PoK foreign land?

Defence Minister Rajnath Singh has urged the residents of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) to join India. Addressing an election rally in the Ramban district ahead of the upcoming Jammu and Kashmir Assembly elections, he said Pakistan treats people from PoK as “foreigners” but India considers them “our own”.

Citing an affidavit by a Pakistan government’s lawyer in the court, Singh said that the neighbouring country has “called the people of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) as ‘foreigners’. We don’t call them foreigners. They are our people. Let them come and join us,” NDTV reported.

The defence minister asserted that J&K would witness development on such a massive scale that “people in PoK on seeing this should say that we do not want to live with Pakistan and instead will go to India”.

What is this affidavit mentioned by Rajnath Singh where Pakistan admitted PoK is a foreign land? Let’s take a closer look.

What is PoK?

Pakistan-occupied Kashmir is a 13,297 sq km area ruled directly by Islamabad. In 1947, Pakistan illegally occupied certain parts of the erstwhile princely state of Jammu and Kashmir. These are referred to as PoK by India.

In October of 1947, Pakistan-backed Pashtun tribesmen invaded Kashmir. The 14-month hostility marked the first war between India and Pakistan. During Partition, Maharaja Hari Singh, the Hindu ruler of Muslim-majority Kashmir, had decided Kashmir would not accede to either India or Pakistan.

However, as the invaders made inroads in Kashmir, the ruler signed the Instrument of Accession to India on October 26. A day later, Indian troops arrived in Srinagar. The Pakistani army also formally entered the battlefield, leading to the war lasting for over a year.

A ceasefire was declared on the night of December 31, 1948. As the ceasefire line was enforced from January 1, 1949, about 13,297 sq km area of Kashmir remained under the control of Pakistani forces, as per Indian Express.

This occupied region is divided into two parts: the so-called “Azad Jammu and Kashmir” or AJK and Gilgit Baltistan (GB), which makes up 86 per cent of the total area of PoK.

Over the years, Pakistan ceded parts of Gilgit Baltistan to China, in exchange for Beijing’s aid in infrastructure development and support on the global stage, noted the Observer Research Foundation (ORF).

Pakistan admits PoK is ‘foreign land’

In a rare public admission, the Pakistan government said in May that PoK is a foreign territory that does not come under its jurisdiction.

Pakistan’s Additional Attorney General told the Islamabad High Court (IHC) that the government cannot produce the kidnapped poet and journalist Ahmed Farhad Shah before the court as he was in police custody in PoK – a “foreign land”, as per an IANS report.

As per reports, the Pakistan government’s lawyer had argued that PoK has its own constitution and courts, adding that judgements of Pakistani courts in the region appear as verdicts of foreign courts.

Shah was reportedly abducted by four men outside his residence in Islamabad late on the night of May 14. The poet’s wife had alleged Pakistan’s spy agency, the Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI), was behind his disappearance.

India, Pakistan’s official stands on PoK

India maintains that PoK and GB are part of the state of Jammu and Kashmir on account of the Union Territory’s accession to India in 1947.

In May, External Affairs Minister S Jaishankar said that PoK was, is and will always be part of India. “I have no doubt in my own mind that someone living in PoK is comparing their situation with someone actually living in Jammu and Kashmir, saying that how is it that people today are actually progressing there,” he said.

Rajnath Singh has previously said New Delhi will never give up its claim of PoK, adding that it would not have to capture it through force but people would themselves want to come to India after seeing the development in Kashmir.

Home Minister Amit Shah had told Lok Sabha earlier that “whenever I mention the State of Jammu and Kashmir, it means both Pak-Occupied Kashmir and Aksai Chin are part of it”.

According to Indian Express, Islamabad rules PoK and Gilgit Baltistan. However, it maintains the farce that they are “autonomous territories”. This is because including them in Pakistan’s map would damage its global position that the entire Jammu and Kashmir is “disputed”.

As Newsweek Pakistan’s article mentioned, PoK is not “constitutionally” a part of Pakistan. Article 257 of Pakistan’s Constitution states, “When the people of the State of Jammu and Kashmir decide to accede to Pakistan, the relationship between Pakistan and that State shall be determined in accordance with the wishes of the people of that State”.

The so-called Azad Jammu and Kashmir Interim Constitution Act of 1974 and Pakistan’s Constitution Act, 1974, define the power-sharing between Islamabad and PoK.

Its constitution allows PoK to have its own President, Prime Minister, judicial system and police force.

The sub-section II of Section VII of the interim Act act states that “No person or political party in Azad Jammu and Kashmir shall be permitted to propagate against, or take part in activities prejudicial or detrimental to, the ideology of the State’s accession to Pakistan.”

In May 2016, several political parties in PoK had demanded to scrap the laws that require candidates contesting elections to sign an affidavit of allegiance to the “ideology of the state’s accession to Pakistan”.

With inputs from agencies