By The South Asia Times

ISLAMABAD - Pakistan on Monday rejected India’s assertion that Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh must be depicted according to New Delhi’s official map, saying unilateral claims cannot change the disputed status of the Himalayan region.

Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said India’s position was contrary to what it described as “internationally recognized facts” and argued that New Delhi’s unilateral actions could not alter the status of Jammu and Kashmir.

The statement followed remarks by Indian Foreign Ministry spokesperson Randhir Jaiswal on Sunday, who said India’s sovereign territory, including the Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, must be depicted according to India’s official map.

The dispute was triggered by a United Nations General Assembly resolution adopted on Sept. 4 aimed at promoting equal-area map projections to improve the representation of the relative sizes of the world’s regions, particularly Africa.

India voted in favor of the resolution but stressed that it did not endorse any particular map, projection or depiction of national boundaries.

Pakistan’s Foreign Ministry said Jammu and Kashmir remains one of the oldest unresolved disputes on the UN Security Council’s agenda.

It cited Security Council Resolution 47, adopted on April 21, 1948, which addressed restoration of peace and order in Jammu and Kashmir and provided for a plebiscite under UN auspices. The UN’s official records identify Resolution 47 as concerning “the restoration of peace and order and the plebiscite in the State of Jammu and Kashmir.”

The Security Council subsequently adopted additional resolutions concerning the India-Pakistan question, while the United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan was established to address the dispute. UN records also contain official maps of Jammu and Kashmir prepared in connection with the commission and subsequent UN proceedings.

Pakistan argues that these resolutions establish a framework in which the final disposition of Jammu and Kashmir should reflect the will of its people through a free and impartial plebiscite under UN auspices.

The Kashmir dispute emerged during the partition of British India in 1947, when the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir became the subject of competing claims by India and Pakistan.

The first India-Pakistan war over Kashmir led to the issue being taken to the UN Security Council in January 1948. The conflict eventually produced a ceasefire line, which was later transformed into the Line of Control following the 1972 Simla Agreement.

The territory remains divided between India and Pakistan, with China also controlling part of the territory.

The UN has maintained a presence in the region through the United Nations Military Observer Group in India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP), established in 1949 following the Security Council’s consideration of the Kashmir conflict.

The dispute intensified following India’s decision in August 2019 to revoke the special constitutional status previously granted to Jammu and Kashmir under Article 370 and reorganize the former state into two federally administered Union Territories — Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh.

Pakistan strongly opposed the move, calling it an attempt to change the status and demographic character of the disputed territory.

In Monday’s statement, Pakistani Foreign Ministry spokesperson Ambassador Sajjad Haider Khan called on the international community to press India to end what Islamabad described as human rights violations in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir.

Pakistan also urged India to fulfill what it called its commitment to the Kashmiri people’s right to self-determination in accordance with relevant UN Security Council resolutions.

The latest exchange underscores how the Kashmir dispute continues to shape relations between the two nuclear-armed South Asian neighbors, more than seven decades after the issue first reached the UN Security Council. However, the UN failed to resolve  the issue and implement its resolutions.