Key Minister Imran Khan’s shift to unveil the so-known as new ‘political map’ of Pakistan by together with the full erstwhile point out of Jammu and Kashmir as well as Junagadh in Gujarat may possibly be an workout to appease the domestic political sentiments but the move is fraught with severe implications. And none of them are very good for Pakistan.
This kind of maps were posted in 1947-48 when Mohammed Ali Jinnah was Pakistan’s 1st governor standard. But the Islamic Republic experienced to rework the map that then had also involved East Pakistan or the existing working day Bangladesh.
The so-identified as new political map launched by PM Imran Khan appears a death knell to the self-dedication motion amid separatists in Kashmir Valley as Islamabad has now co-opted Jammu and Kashmir, leaving no space for either plebiscite or impartial Kashmir. This does not arrive as a surprise to Kashmir watchers in New Delhi as each self-willpower and so-called freedom battle was a ruse for cross border terror activities.
By demonstrating the northern areas of Gilgit-Baltistan as part of Jammu and Kashmir, Islamabad’s promise of larger autonomy to this mountainous area stands nullified as the location has been merged with predominantly Sunni areas of Mirpur and Muzaffarabad as also the Valley.
Even so, the influence of PM Khan’s cartographic hallucination on India-Pakistan ties is quite considerable. By reopening the 1947-48 maps, Pakistan has offered up on bilateralism of 1972 Shimla Settlement and 1999 Lahore Declaration – the two agreements that dedicated equally nations to resolving bilateral disputes bilaterally – and paved a way for unilateralism. Does Imran Khan’s ‘Naya Pakistan’ also want to give up other bilateral pacts far too? Like the bilateral 1960 Indus Water Treaty that allows waters of Indus, Chenab and Jhelum to be utilized by Pakistan whilst allocating Beas, Ravi and Sutlej waters to India?
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Although the Indian federal government has dismissed the new Pakistan map as a “political absurdity”, the map opens up the route for unilateralism by India really should it opt for to invoke it in long run as Islamabad has indulged in unilateralism by issuing a new map that depicts territories firmly less than Indian handle as Pakistani territory.
But the map is also telling commentary about Pakistan’s relationship with its ‘iron brother’ China that has been engaged in a standoff with India for the past a few months in East Ladakh. PM Khan, who is typically accused of minimizing Pakistan as a client-condition of Xi Jinping’s China, has not only retained Shaksgam Valley and Aksai Chin out of its cartographic enlargement but also remaining this frontier undefined to let China attract the line on the map.
It is really evident that Pakistan has followed Nepal. Kathmandu experienced issued a map to emphasise its illegal statements on Lipulekh, Limiyadhura and Kalapani in India’s Uttarakhand on 21 May well 2020. It is not mere coincidence that both equally Pakistan and Nepal are near allies of Beijing with the latter pumping in dollars in type of infrastructure help to prop up equally regimes.
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Even though India has no desire to both increase its territorial claims or give up on bilateralism vis-a-vis Pakistan, the map reflects the disappointment inside of the Imran Khan governing administration around its incapacity to get the international community to aspect with Islamabad on the Kashmir challenge just after the abrogation of Post 370 on August 5 last year.
Pakistan watchers also see the go as a reaction to the increase of India in the comity of nations, specifically following the Indian troopers stood up to an intense People’s Liberation Military in Ladakh, notably the bloody clash at Galwan on June 15. The larger question on how to offer with India is part of frequent interlocution among international offices of China and Pakistan.
