ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Thursday summoned the Indian Charge d’Affaires (Cd’A) to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and handed him a demarche conveying the government of Pakistan’s rejection of a report of a delimitation commission that Islamabad says was aimed at
"disenfranchising and disempowering" the Muslim majority population of Indian-administered Kashmir.
India published on Thursday a new list of redrawn political constituencies for the former state of Jammu and Kashmir (J&K), giving greater representation to the Muslim-majority region's Hindu areas and paving the way for fresh elections.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi's Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP) government broke up J&K into two federal territories in August 2019 as part of a move to tighten its grip over the region, which is at the heart of more than 70 years of hostility between India and Pakistan.
J&K originally comprised the mainly Muslim Kashmir Valley, the Hindu-dominated Jammu region, and the remote Buddhist enclave of Ladakh.
The government said a delimitation commission had finalized 90 assembly constituencies for J&K, excluding Ladakh, with 43 seats for Jammu and 47 for Kashmir. Earlier, Jammu had 37 seats and the Kashmir valley 46.
“The Indian side was conveyed that this entire exercise was farcical and had already been rejected by the cross-section of political parties in [Kashmir],” the foreign office said in a statement. “Through this effort, India only wanted to lend ‘legitimacy’ to its illegal actions of August 5, 2019.”
“It was emphasized that the ulterior motive of the Indian government was evident from the fact that, under the garb of so-called delimitation, the representation of Muslims in the re-designated constituencies had been reduced to their disadvantage … The new electoral boundaries would further disempower, marginalize and divide the people of the occupied territory. It would only pave the way for installing yet another puppet regime.”
The commission, whose report has been rejected by J&K's Peoples Democratic Party, said it had been difficult to accommodate competing claims from various sides, citing in a statement the region's "peculiar geo-cultural landscape".
Indian Home Minister Amit Shah said in January elections would be held in J&K soon after the delimitation process was completed. He also promised to reinstate its statehood once its "situation became normal".
The Jammu Kashmir National Conference, which has governed the region, said it was studying the implications of the move that has been championed by the BJP.
"No amount of gerrymandering will change the ground reality, which is that whenever elections are held the voter will punish the BJP and its proxies for what they have done to J&K over the last 4 years," the National Conference said on Twitter.
The BJP said on Twitter it would change J&K's image and future for the better if voted to power.
