India's Apex Court Has No Legal Standing In Matters Of Kashmir: AJK Minister

Azad Jammu Kashmir Finance Minister and spokesman of the State government Majid Khan has said that the Supreme Court of India has no legal standing in the matters of Kashmir as New Delhi had occupied the territory illegally against the will of the Kashmiri people

MIRPUR ( AJK) : (UrduPoint / Pakistan Point news - 12th Dec, 2023) Azad Jammu Kashmir Finance Minister and spokesman of the State government Majid Khan has said that the Supreme Court of India has no legal standing in the matters of Kashmir as New Delhi had occupied the territory illegally against the will of the Kashmiri people.

Terming the court order as unfair and politically motivated, Khan said in a statement issued on Tuesday that the verdict was tantamount to deprive Kashmiris of their basic political and human rights guaranteed to them under the UNSC resolutions and other rights treaties.

Describing Kashmiris as masters of their destiny, Khan made it clear that neither the Indian Parliament nor the Supreme Court of India has any right or authority to determine the political future of Kashmir.

Referring to the UNSC resolutions, he said, that under these covenants only Kashmiris have the right to decide their future. " Jammu and Kashmir stretched over eighty-four thousand square miles is an indivisible entity", he said.

The state of Jammu and Kashmir, he said, has never been a part of the Indian Union. "Kashmir has had a distinct identity even at the time when the entire subcontinent was divided into more than five hundred small states known as Rajwards", the minister added.

While rejecting the Indian Supreme Court's decision, he said that the government and people of Azad Kashmir don't accept or acknowledge the supremacy of the Indian Constitution over Jammu and Kashmir.

"Any piece of legislation by the Indian parliament or any ruling by India's pliant judiciary carries no legal significance", the minister said, adding that Kashmiris have outrightly rejected the Indian government's 5th August 2019 unilateral move and other measures it had taken to erode Kashmiri's identity as a Muslim majority state.

The government spokesman, while referring to India's expansionist designs in the region, said that the Indian apartheid regime's nefarious designs pose a serious threat to peace and security in South Asia.

He said that the resolution of the Kashmir dispute in line with the UNSC resolutions was the only acceptable solution for the people of Kashmir.

The Indian government, he said, was hell-bent on erasing the identity of the Kashmiri people. He said that the recent amendments approved by the Indian Lok Sabha regarding Kashmir were meant to deprive the Kashmiri people of their political and democratic rights.

He said that holding elections in the region was not a substitute for the right of self-determination of the Kashmiri people. He said that the Indian Supreme Court's decision would not deter Kashmiris from pursuing their cherished goal.

He said that the AJK government would continue to raise its voice against the atrocities being inflicted on the people of Occupied Jammu and Kashmir by the Indian occupation forces.

Expressing solidarity with the people of the Indian-occupied territory of Jammu and Kashmir, the spokesman said that the people and government of Azad Kashmir would stand shoulder to shoulder with their brethren in their struggle for the right to self-determination.

He expressed the optimism that the day was not far when people of the occupied region would achieve their cherished goal for which they offered unprecedented sacrifices.