Pakistan ‘worried’ over Jammu & Kashmir map bill

India and Pakistan clashed on Tuesday over a proposed bill that the Indian government plans to place before Parliament, Geospatial Information Regulation Bill 2016, after Islamabad approached the United Nations, protesting against India’s move. The bill has obviously rattled a jittery Islamabad that does not miss any opportunity to raise the Kashmir issue in global forums.

On Tuesday, the spat began with Pakistan approaching the United Nations and UN Security Council over India’s plan to introduce the proposed Geospatial Information Regulation Bill in Parliament, that penalises anyone who does not depict Jammu and Kashmir as part of India. The Pakistan government expressed “serious concern” over what it called a “controversial” bill which it claims will violate UNSC resolutions on Kashmir. Pakistan said that India’s position was “factually incorrect and legally untenable” and has also claimed New Delhi is violating international law.

In New Delhi, the external affairs ministry struck back, saying: “The proposed bill is an entirely internal legislative matter of India, since the whole of the state of J&K is an integral part of India. Pakistan or any other party has no locus standi in the matter. The government firmly rejects Pakistan’s repeated and increasing attempts to impose on the international community matters that India has always been open to address bilaterally with Pakistan.”

According to recent reports on the draft bill that the government is preparing, wrong depiction of the map of India could land violators in jail with a maximum term of seven years and fines of upto Rs 100 crores. This step was apparently envisaged by the government in the backdrop of cases where social networking sites showed Jammu and Kashmir and Arunachal Pradesh as a part of Pakistan and China respectively. The draft of the Geospatial Information Regulation Bill 2016 says that it will be mandatory to take permission from a government authority before acquiring, disseminating, publishing or distributing any geospatial information of India. Geospatial Information means “geospatial imagery or data acquired through space or aerial platforms such as satellite, aircraft, airships, balloons, unmanned aerial vehicles, including value addition or graphical or digital data depicting natural or manmade physical features, phenomenon or boundaries of the earth or any information related thereto, including surveys, charts, maps, terrestrial photos”. India considers the whole of J&K as its integral part and refers to parts of the state illegally occupied by Pakistan as Pakistan-occupied Kashmir (PoK), while Pakistan refers to the part under its control as AJK (Azad Jammu and Kashmir). PoK essentially comprises the region of Muzaffarabad, along with Gilgit and Baltistan, all of which were part of the princely state of Jammu and Kashmir before Independence. Islamabad refers to the Kashmir Valley, Jammu and Ladakh regions collectively as “Indian-occupied Kashmir”, a term rejected by New Delhi. A large portion of eastern J&K, referred to as Aksai Chin, has also been illegally occupied by China for decades.

“Pakistan has expressed serious concern to the UN Secretary-General and president of the UN Security Council through letters by our permanent representative in New York, with regard to the Indian government’s efforts to introduce a controversial Geospatial Information Regulation Bill in the Indian Parliament. In violation of UNSC resolutions, the official map of India has been depicting the disputed territory of J&K as part of India, which is factually incorrect and legally untenable. Through the passage of this bill, the Indian government would penalise individuals and organisations who depict J&K as a disputed territory as per UNSC resolutions,” the Pakistan foreign ministry said in a statement. “The letter calls upon the UN to uphold UNSC resolutions and urge India to stop such acts which are in violation of international law. We have urged the international community and the UN to fulfil their commitment with the people of J&K by holding an independent and impartial plebiscite under UN auspices,” the Pakistani statement added.