Pakistan rejects Indian Supreme Court’s verdict on disputed Jammu and Kashmir

Pakistan has firmly rejected the Indian Supreme Court’s decision to uphold Article 370, granting special status to Jammu and Kashmir.

Pakistan’s interim foreign minister, Jalil Abbas Jelani, declared the Supreme Court ruling invalid on Monday, stating that India lacked the authority to unilaterally alter the status of occupied Kashmir.

Minister Jelani made his comments hours after India’s Supreme Court endorsed the government’s 2019 annexation of the disputed territory.

Addressing a news conference in Islamabad on Monday, he said, “Pakistan does not acknowledge the supremacy of the Indian Constitution over Jammu and Kashmir. Any process subservient to the Indian Constitution carries no legal significance.”

Jelani went on to say, “The Indian Supreme Court’s verdict fails to recognize the internationally disputed nature of the Jammu and Kashmir dispute. It further fails to cater to the aspirations of the Kashmiri people, who have already rejected India’s illegal and unilateral actions of August 5, 2019. The judgment is yet another manifestation of the pliant judiciary under India’s ruling dispensation.”

Earlier that Monday, the Indian Supreme Court upheld the decision to revoke Jammu and Kashmir’s special constitutional status (Article 370), a move initiated in 2019 by the government under Prime Minister Narendra Modi.