ISLAMABAD: Pakistan on Monday rejected India’s position on maps depicting Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, saying New Delhi’s unilateral claims cannot change the internationally recognized status of the disputed region.
Foreign Office spokesperson Sajjad Haider Khan made the remarks in response to a statement by India’s foreign ministry calling for Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh to be depicted according to India’s official map.
“India’s unilateral actions and continued illegal occupation cannot alter the internationally recognized disputed status of Jammu and Kashmir,” Khan said in a statement.
He said official United Nations maps that depict Jammu and Kashmir as a disputed territory remain the appropriate representation of its current legal status.
“India’s so-called official maps and unilateral claims of sovereignty have no bearing on the status of the disputed territory,” Khan added.
Khan described the Jammu and Kashmir dispute as one of the oldest unresolved disputes on the U.N. Security Council’s agenda.
He said relevant Security Council resolutions call for the region’s final status to be determined in accordance with the wishes of the Kashmiri people through a free and impartial plebiscite under U.N. auspices.
Pakistan urged the international community to press India to end what Islamabad described as human rights violations in Indian-administered Jammu and Kashmir and to support the Kashmiri people’s right to self-determination in accordance with relevant U.N. resolutions.
India and Pakistan have disputed control of Jammu and Kashmir since 1947 and have fought multiple wars over the region.
Separate U.N. map resolution
The dispute over the depiction of Jammu and Kashmir comes days after the U.N. General Assembly approved a separate resolution concerning a new global map projection.
The assembly voted Sept. 4 to adopt the Equal Earth cartographic projection, which is intended to provide a more accurate representation of the relative sizes of the world’s continents.
The resolution was supported by 164 countries. The United States voted against it, while six countries abstained.
The resolution said the projection would improve “the accuracy of the cartographic representation of the world.”
The Equal Earth projection changes the visual proportions of continents compared with some widely used map designs, making Africa appear larger while reducing the apparent size of North America and Europe.
The U.N. decision on the new map projection is separate from the dispute between Pakistan and India over Jammu and Kashmir, which centers on competing territorial and legal claims.
