Pak PM Imran Khan (File Photo)

Pakistan is fortifying its claim on territories it has occupied in Afghanistan and India, implying a major shift in the status quo of the region. On its western front, it has been speedily fencing the Durand Line “long disputed by Afghanistan”, and on its eastern front, it has changed the name of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (PoK) from Azad Kashmir to Jammu & Kashmir Administrative Services (JKAS).

An activist from PoK, Nasir Aziz Khan, hit out at Pakistan against its bid to alter the status of the region and Gilgit Baltistan , saying the Imran Khan-led government has been trying to “illegally merge” the region with the Punjab province.

Khan, the spokesperson of United Kashmir People’s National Party, was reacting to an order dated December 11 issued by ‘Azad Government of the State of Jammu & Kashmir’ Services ordering renaming of ‘Azad Jammu & Kashmir Management Group’ as ‘Jammu & Kashmir Administrative Services’ with immediate effect.

The order was issued just after after PoK PM Farooq Haider Khan said that he could be the last PM of PoK. “Raja Farooq Haider has said that the Pakistani administration has given him a clear message that he is the last PM of PoK. That clearly indicates that Pakistan is trying to illegally merge PoK with the Punjab province and some parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa . Pakistan has a similar intention for Gilgit-Baltistan also,” Nasir Aziz said.

“Pakistan has illegally occupied these regions. As per UN convention, Pakistan had to withdraw from these regions but it did not comply with the UN Council’s resolutions on J&K. They kept on persecuting the regions and sowed the seeds of communalism there,” he added.

Although Pakistan never had a legal claim over the illegally occupied territories of Gilgit-Baltistan and PoK, the administrators from Islamabad have violated human rights by persecuting the locals through draconian laws, according to reports.

“Pakistan never had any locus standi on regions of Jammu & Kashmir. A criminal case could be filed against (Pakistan) under the International Criminal Court ,” Nasir said.

Earlier, home minister Amit Shah had said that the reorganisation of J&K by taking away its special status and bifurcating it into two UTs also extends to PoK. Many in BJP have since then threatened to liberate PoK and integrate it with India.

Meanwhile, last year, former President of Afghanistan Hamid Karzai had revealed that the US government is financing Pakistan’s Durand Line fencing project. Ethnic Pashtu people live on both sides of the 2,640 km long line, which the British drew to separate Pakistan from Afghanistan in 1947.

However, Afghanistan rejected the international border. The ethnic Pashtu families divided by the line have time and again sought change in the status of the border.

