Pakistan rejects IIOJK polls, calls for Modi govt's accountability over rights abuses

ISLAMABAD: President Asif Ali Zardari has called for accountability of the Narendra Modi-led government for the human rights violations in the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK), while condemning the elections for the legislative assembly in the held region. 

The president categorically rejected the IIOJK polls, being held in the occupied territory for the first time in a decade, asserting that the electoral process was no substitute for the Kashmiri people's right to self-determination.

The occupied Muslim-majority region enjoyed a special status of partial autonomy until 2019 which was then revoked by the far-right Narendra Modi-led Bharatiya Janata Party's government.

IIOJK's special semi-autonomous status — constitutionally enshrined power to control its affairs — had meant that only those who descended from residents of the territory in 1934 could vote and own property.

The polls are being held after the Indian Supreme Court, last year, upheld the government's decision and set a deadline of September 30 this year for local polls.

President Zardari, talking to a delegation of migrants from IIOJK — residing in Pakistan since 1989 — led by Uzair Ahmed Ghazali at Aiwan-e-Sadr, emphasised that such elections were unacceptable to the people of Kashmir and called upon the international community to hold the Modi government accountable for ongoing human rights violations in IIOJK.

He further urged the need to take concrete steps toward conducting a plebiscite in line with relevant United Nations Security Council Resolutions.

Welcoming the delegation, the president condemned the legislative assembly elections in IIOJK, terming them as part of India’s broader strategy to consolidate its illegal occupation of the region.

He highlighted that such measures could neither legitimise India’s occupation nor suppress the freedom struggle of the Kashmiri people.

The president stated that India was trying to alter the demographic structure of IIOJK by turning the Kashmiri Muslims into a minority and transforming them into a disempowered community in their own land.

"Pakistan greatly valued the sacrifices made by the Kashmiri people for their rights and would continue to stand in solidarity with them," he said, reiterating the country's commitment to provide moral, political and diplomatic support to the Kashmiri people till the realisation of their right to self-determination.

The delegation apprised the president about the atrocities being committed by the Modi regime in the disputed territory. It was highlighted that the entire Kashmiri leadership had been imprisoned to suppress the voice of the Kashmiri people.

The delegation also apprised the president about the issues of the refugees in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).