When Pakistan unveiled a new political map on August 4 this year, the move got much attention in the Indian media. India’s Ministry of External Affairs called it an ‘exercise in political absurdity’.
That was predictable. India conveniently forgot its patently illegal move on August 5, 2019, to annex the occupied territory of Jammu and Kashmir (including Ladakh) and, thereafter, issuing maps that, in a comic book fashion, showed the liberated territories of Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan as part of India.
Both actions, the illegal annexation of IOJK as well as the cartographic irredentism, were a violation by India of the UN Security Council resolutions as well as bilateral arrangements. New Delhi did the same with reference to Aksai Chin, drawing a sharp response from Beijing.
What was not predictable were semi-literate comments from within Pakistan, including from some leading lights of the political opposition. They chose to pass sarcastic comments on the exercise and undermined an important exercise in the expression of the country’s sovereignty.
This is what I had written then in these pages under the title, Mapping Exercise and Partisan Nonsense: “The act, and the map itself, was widely misunderstood and misinterpreted in the country. The reactions ranged from ignorant comments on the social media to snide remarks from opposition parties. The government’s weak communication strategy and the political fault-lines that have deepened in the past two years didn’t help either. As a result, a very important exercise in expressing the sovereignty of a state became unnecessarily politicised.”
My point then — as now — was that “A clear, standardised political map is…a national requirement both for (geo)political and legal reasons. It voices a political narrative, which is important not merely to state facts but also as a legal instrument. It becomes part of what International Law describes as state practice and which can, given the wider acceptance of the practice, create opinio juris, i.e., ‘a subjective acceptance of the practice as law by the international community’.”
I give this background and mention ill-informed comments within Pakistan because the importance of the new map and how it has got under India’s skin became evident on September 15 during a virtual meeting of National Security Advisors of the member states of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. Thereby hangs a tale.
After a test call on September 11 for the Zoom-conferencing on September 15 for the 15th meeting of the secretaries of the Security Council of the SCO member states, India sent a note verbale to Russia, the coordinator of the meeting. In the note verbale, India noted that during the test call — done by the technical staff — Pakistan had used its newly-released political map as the backdrop for its representative. India claimed, arbitrarily and wrongly, that the map depicted “sovereign Indian territories as part of Pakistan.”
The Indian note then stated, without mentioning the UN-recognised disputed nature of the areas or India’s illegal action of annexing those territories on August 5, 2019, that “This is a blatant violation of the SCO Charter and against all established norms of safeguarding the sovereignty and territorial integrity of SCO Member States.”
The note verbale closed with the line: “Indian side hereby issues its strong objection to the use of above-mentioned illegal map by Pakistan.”
On September 14, Russia, as per the protocol, informed Pakistan of this note verbale by India. As my televised conversation with Dr Moeed Yusuf, the national security advisor, indicated, there was a brief meeting of relevant officials with reference to India’s note verbale and it was decided that there is no way that Dr Yusuf would make the presentation without the map in the backdrop. Russia was informed of this decision and no member state objected to Pakistan’s position.
Specifically, Pakistan wrote back: “Pakistan side categorically rejects the Indian contention that the newly released political map of Pakistan includes any part of Indian territory. India does not have any legal authority or right to object to the political map of another SCO member state.
“The political map issued by Pakistan emphatically reaffirms our abiding commitment to seeking a solution of the Jammu & Kashmir dispute through a free and impartial plebiscite under the auspices of the United Nations in accordance with the relevant UN Security Council Resolutions and the wishes of the Kashmiri people. Pakistan side’s principled stance is also in line with the SCO Charter, which reaffirms adherence to the goals and principles of the Charter of the United Nations.
“It is, in fact, India that has violated the UN Charter by trying to illegally change the status of the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu & Kashmir in violation of the relevant UN Security Council Resolutions. India would be well-advised not to undermine progress in SCO by repeatedly making baseless and false claims on an internationally recognised dispute.”
On the day of the video-conference, Indian NSA, Aji Doval, left the meeting when Dr Yusuf began to speak. Still shots and a short video-clip of his vacant chair have since been circulating. Doval also boycotted speeches by the Russian and Uzbek NSAs, probably because he had expected them to act in favour of India and prevent Pakistan from displaying the map as a backdrop.
Those in Pakistan who had taken to making snide remarks about the map should perhaps stand educated about the significance of maps as strong statements by the states. Unfortunately, given the political divisions in the country and the current government’s sloppy political approaches, there’s not much likelihood of the detractors offering a mea culpa.
But leaving that aside, it is important to note that if Pakistan had chosen to remove the map as the backdrop to the video meeting, it might as well have buried and interred the map — and, with the map, its expression of sovereignty and its claim to speak in support of the Kashmiris and their cause.
Corollary: next time someone wants to comment on the map, remember that it is the bayonet Mr Doval could ill-afford to sit on!
The write is a former News Editor of The Friday Times and reluctantly tweets @ejazhaider
That was predictable. India conveniently forgot its patently illegal move on August 5, 2019, to annex the occupied territory of Jammu and Kashmir (including Ladakh) and, thereafter, issuing maps that, in a comic book fashion, showed the liberated territories of Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan as part of India.
Both actions, the illegal annexation of IOJK as well as the cartographic irredentism, were a violation by India of the UN Security Council resolutions as well as bilateral arrangements. New Delhi did the same with reference to Aksai Chin, drawing a sharp response from Beijing.
What was not predictable were semi-literate comments from within Pakistan, including from some leading lights of the political opposition. They chose to pass sarcastic comments on the exercise and undermined an important exercise in the expression of the country’s sovereignty.
This is what I had written then in these pages under the title, Mapping Exercise and Partisan Nonsense: “The act, and the map itself, was widely misunderstood and misinterpreted in the country. The reactions ranged from ignorant comments on the social media to snide remarks from opposition parties. The government’s weak communication strategy and the political fault-lines that have deepened in the past two years didn’t help either. As a result, a very important exercise in expressing the sovereignty of a state became unnecessarily politicised.”
My point then — as now — was that “A clear, standardised political map is…a national requirement both for (geo)political and legal reasons. It voices a political narrative, which is important not merely to state facts but also as a legal instrument. It becomes part of what International Law describes as state practice and which can, given the wider acceptance of the practice, create opinio juris, i.e., ‘a subjective acceptance of the practice as law by the international community’.”
I give this background and mention ill-informed comments within Pakistan because the importance of the new map and how it has got under India’s skin became evident on September 15 during a virtual meeting of National Security Advisors of the member states of Shanghai Cooperation Organisation. Thereby hangs a tale.
After a test call on September 11 for the Zoom-conferencing on September 15 for the 15th meeting of the secretaries of the Security Council of the SCO member states, India sent a note verbale to Russia, the coordinator of the meeting. In the note verbale, India noted that during the test call — done by the technical staff — Pakistan had used its newly-released political map as the backdrop for its representative. India claimed, arbitrarily and wrongly, that the map depicted “sovereign Indian territories as part of Pakistan.”
The Indian note then stated, without mentioning the UN-recognised disputed nature of the areas or India’s illegal action of annexing those territories on August 5, 2019, that “This is a blatant violation of the SCO Charter and against all established norms of safeguarding the sovereignty and territorial integrity of SCO Member States.”
The note verbale closed with the line: “Indian side hereby issues its strong objection to the use of above-mentioned illegal map by Pakistan.”
On September 14, Russia, as per the protocol, informed Pakistan of this note verbale by India. As my televised conversation with Dr Moeed Yusuf, the national security advisor, indicated, there was a brief meeting of relevant officials with reference to India’s note verbale and it was decided that there is no way that Dr Yusuf would make the presentation without the map in the backdrop. Russia was informed of this decision and no member state objected to Pakistan’s position.
Specifically, Pakistan wrote back: “Pakistan side categorically rejects the Indian contention that the newly released political map of Pakistan includes any part of Indian territory. India does not have any legal authority or right to object to the political map of another SCO member state.
“The political map issued by Pakistan emphatically reaffirms our abiding commitment to seeking a solution of the Jammu & Kashmir dispute through a free and impartial plebiscite under the auspices of the United Nations in accordance with the relevant UN Security Council Resolutions and the wishes of the Kashmiri people. Pakistan side’s principled stance is also in line with the SCO Charter, which reaffirms adherence to the goals and principles of the Charter of the United Nations.
“It is, in fact, India that has violated the UN Charter by trying to illegally change the status of the Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu & Kashmir in violation of the relevant UN Security Council Resolutions. India would be well-advised not to undermine progress in SCO by repeatedly making baseless and false claims on an internationally recognised dispute.”
On the day of the video-conference, Indian NSA, Aji Doval, left the meeting when Dr Yusuf began to speak. Still shots and a short video-clip of his vacant chair have since been circulating. Doval also boycotted speeches by the Russian and Uzbek NSAs, probably because he had expected them to act in favour of India and prevent Pakistan from displaying the map as a backdrop.
Those in Pakistan who had taken to making snide remarks about the map should perhaps stand educated about the significance of maps as strong statements by the states. Unfortunately, given the political divisions in the country and the current government’s sloppy political approaches, there’s not much likelihood of the detractors offering a mea culpa.
But leaving that aside, it is important to note that if Pakistan had chosen to remove the map as the backdrop to the video meeting, it might as well have buried and interred the map — and, with the map, its expression of sovereignty and its claim to speak in support of the Kashmiris and their cause.
Corollary: next time someone wants to comment on the map, remember that it is the bayonet Mr Doval could ill-afford to sit on!
The write is a former News Editor of The Friday Times and reluctantly tweets @ejazhaider