Delimitation Commission fails to allot seats for PoK, analysts slam Centre

Analysts attribute the Delimitation Commission's failure to mention the seats for PoK to the “lethargic approach” of the Centre towards claiming the PoK and Saksham valley including the Trans-Karakoram and India’s stance on maintaining the status quo, discounting the reality that Pakistan was constantly challenging the same.

Srinagar:The Jammu and Kashmir Delimitation Commission which issued its final notification on Thursday by reserving 43 seats for Jammu and 47 for Kashmir has failed to mention the Parliamentary and Assembly seats for Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Shaksgam valley including the Trans-Karakoram. While abolishing the special status of Jammu and Kashmir on August 5, 2019, the Central government changed the provisions related to Pakistan Occupied Kashmir by reserving 24 seats in the Legislative Assembly of the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir.

The Constitution of Jammu and Kashmir, framed in the year 1956, had also stipulated 24 seats in the Legislative Assembly, which were left vacant. After the reorganization of the State under the Jammu & Kashmir Reorganization Act, 2O19 following the abolition of the Article 370, it was mandatory for the Delimitation Commission to mention Assembly seats for the PoK, which has not been mentioned in the gazette in a departure from India's claim on the erstwhile princely state of J&K.

Analysts attribute the Delimitation Commission's failure to mention the seats for PoK to the “lethargic approach” of the Centre towards claiming the PoK and Saksham valley including the Trans-Karakoram and India’s stance on maintaining the status quo, discounting the reality that Pakistan was constantly challenging the same. India has, advertently or inadvertently, projected that it was inclined toward a status quo-centric solution on Kashmir, the analysts say.

The downplaying of the country’s legitimate claims on PoK and Sakshgam valley including the Trans-Karakoram failed to instill a strong sense of justification for those claims in public as well as at the global level, added the analysts. “Lethargy and neglect together, slowly but surely, bred policy inertia on the issue, which at some point looked rather irreversible”.

India has declared the entire Jammu and Kashmir including PoK, Shaksgam Valley, and the main Karakoram range as an integral part of the country and any issue related to them is an internal matter of India. The Commission was also expected to take into account the views of the Supreme Court while delimiting additional seats for the Parliamentary and Assembly seats in Jammu and Kashmir, including PoK, Shaksgam Valley, and the main Karakoram range.

According to the Supreme Court, delimitation is not an exercise in mathematics. It should reflect the political aspirations of a society bound in a particular geography. By not allocating the seats to PoK, Shaksgam Valley including the Trans-Karakoram, the Commission has come under criticism. The failure to allow the seats for the PoK is also contrary to the forceful assertion of India’s claim on PoK which began with Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s Independence Day speech in August 2016, when he made explicit reference to PoK.

Media coverage pursuant to the surgical strikes of September 2016 further sensitized the people about PoK. Besides, repeated references to terror camps in PoK by then-Defense Minister Manohar Parrikar sustained the government’s focus on PoK. On 6th August 2019, Home Minister Amit Shah asserted in Lok Sabha that Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) and Aksai Chin are part of Jammu and Kashmir and that Kashmir Valley is an integral part of the country.