Pakistan’s new political map

- On August 4, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan announced a new political map of Pakistan.
- The new political map of Pakistan has claimed the entire region of Jammu and Kashmir stretching all the way to the edge of Ladakh.
- The map also claims Junagarh and Manavadar, a former princely State and territory, respectively, that are part of present-day Gujarat.
- It leaves out a claim line at the eastern end of J&K indicating Pakistan’s willingness to make China a third party in the Kashmir issue.
- This clearly runs counter to the Simla Agreement which treated Kashmir as a bilateral matter.
- Pakistan also claimed the entire territory and water bodies that fall in the Sir Creek region in the westernmost part of India.
Sir Creek is a 96-km strip of water disputed between India and Pakistan in the Rann of Kutch marshlands. The Creek opens up in the Arabian Sea and roughly divides the Kutch region of Gujarat from the Sindh Province of Pakistan.

The map is likely to lead to changes in Pakistan’s position on territorial disputes with India. By demanding the entire Jammu and Kashmir region, Mr. Khan is changing the main features of Pakistan’s Kashmir discourse as it includes the Jammu region prominently.
The inclusion of Junagarh and Manavadar opens fundamental issues of territorial sovereignty of India.
Manavadar, a princely territory, joined India on February 15, 1948 and Indian troops marched into Junagarh in September that year incorporating it into Indian territory.
By normalising Islamabad’s claims over these former princely territories, Pakistan is most likely to assert its rights over the former princely State of Hyderabad as well.

The map is silent about territorial claims in the west and northwest of Pakistan. It indicates Islamabad’s acceptance of the Durand Line as the border with Afghanistan.

India’s Ministry of External Affairs responded to Pakistan’s new political map as an exercise in “political absurdity”.

The Simla Agreement signed by Prime Minister Indira Gandhi and President Zulfikar Ali Bhutto of Pakistan on 2nd July 1972 was much more than a peace treaty seeking to reverse the consequences of the 1971 war (i.e. to bring about withdrawals of troops and an exchange of PoWs).
It was a comprehensive blueprint for good neighbourly relations between India and Pakistan.
Under the Simla Agreement both countries undertook to abjure conflict and confrontation which had marred relations in the past, and to work towards the establishment of durable peace, friendship and cooperation.
The following principles of the Agreement are particularly noteworthy:
- A mutual commitment to the peaceful resolution of all issues through direct bilateral approaches.
- To build the foundations of a cooperative relationship with special focus on people to people contacts.
- To uphold the inviolability of the Line of Control in Jammu and Kashmir, which is a most important Confidence-building measure (CBMs) between India and Pakistan, and a key to durable peace.

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