Islamabad. Pakistan has rejected the “so-called Delimitation Commission” report for the occupied Jammu and Kashmir, stressing that the Indian government must refrain from bringing about any illegal demographic changes in the held territory.

According to The Indian Express report, the “Delimitation Commission” on Thursday recommended seven additional constituencies – six for Jammu and one for Kashmir – taking the total number of seats in the UT to 90 from 83 earlier. “This will increase the number of seats in the Jammu Division to 43 from 37 seats earlier, and that in the Kashmir Valley to 47 from 46 earlier,” the report read.

According to a statement issued by the foreign office, the Indian charge d’affaires was called to the foreign affairs ministry on Friday and handed over a demarche conveying the Pakistani government’s rejection of the report which was aimed at “disenfranchising and disempowering” the Muslim majority population of Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir.

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“The Indian side was conveyed that this entire exercise was farcical and had already been rejected by the cross-section of political parties in IIOJK. Through this effort, India only wanted to lend ‘legitimacy’ to its illegal actions of August 5, 2019,” it read.

It was emphasised that the “ulterior motive” of the Indian government was evident from the fact that the representation of Muslims in the re-designated constituencies had been reduced to their disadvantage. “This shattered the rationale pushed by the Indian Government that the ‘delimitation effort’ was aimed to ‘empower’ the local population,” it read, “however, in reality, the new electoral boundaries would further disempower, marginalize and divide the people of the occupied territory. It would only pave the way for installing yet another puppet regime backed by the BJP-RSS combine.”

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The foreign office underscored that the Jammu and Kashmir dispute was an internationally recognised dispute and a long-standing item on the agenda of the UN Security Council. Any illegal attempt by India to allow disproportionately higher electoral representation to the Hindu population to the detriment of the Muslim population was a mockery of all norms of democracy and India’s obligations under the UNSC resolutions and international law, it added.

“It was also stressed that the Indian government must stop forthwith its oppression in the IIOJK, and let the Kashmiri people determine their own future through a free and fair plebiscite under the UN auspices as enshrined in the relevant UNSC resolutions,” the official handout read.