- Tuesday, February 25, 2025
By: Shubham Ghosh
PAKISTAN on Monday (11) said the verdict given by the supreme court of eastern neighbour India upholding the abrogation of Article 370 of the country’s constitution has “no legal value”, asserting that the international law doesn’t recognise New Delhi’s “unilateral and illegal actions” of August 5, 2019.
The Narendra Modi government abrogated the said article that gave the former state of Jammu and Kashmir special status, on that day.
The top court unanimously upheld the Modi government’s decision of August 2019 to abrogate Article 370, which bestowed a special status on Jammu and Kashmir.
Read: What PM Modi said on Indian supreme court’s verdict on Article 370
International law doesn't recognize India’s unilateral and illegal actions of 5 August 2019. The judicial endorsement by the Indian Supreme Court has no legal value. Kashmiris have an inalienable right to self determination in accordance with the relevant UN SC resolutions.
— Jalil Abbas Jilani (@JalilJilani) December 11, 2023
“International law doesn’t recognise India’s unilateral and illegal actions of 5 August 2019. The judicial endorsement by the Indian Supreme Court has no legal value. Kashmiris have an inalienable right to self determination in accordance with the relevant UN SC resolutions,” Pakistan’s caretaker foreign minister Jalil Abbas Jilani said in a post on X.
Read: India’s top court backs Modi government’s scrapping Article 370
Earlier, former prime minister and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) president Shehbaz Sharif criticised the Indian apex court’s verdict, calling it a “biased decision.”
“The Indian Supreme Court has violated the international laws by giving a decision against the resolutions of the United Nations. Indian Supreme Court has betrayed the sacrifice of millions of Kashmiris,” said Sharif, who served as the prime minister before the current caretaker regime took over in August.
With this “biased decision”, Kashmir’s “freedom movement” will become stronger, he said, adding that there will be “no abatement in the Kashmiri struggle.”
Under the leadership of former prime minister and his elder brother Nawaz Sharif, PML-N will raise the voice of the right of Kashmiris at all levels, he added.
Relations between India and Pakistan have often been strained over the Kashmir issue and cross-border terrorism emanating from Pakistan.
However, their ties nose-dived after India abrogated Article 370 as Pakistan expelled the Indian envoy and downgraded the trade ties. India has time and again said that Kashmir is an internal matter, and added it desires normal, friendly relations with Pakistan in an environment free of terror, violence and hostility.
(With PTI inputs)
