Pakistan had never acknowledge accession of Jammu and Kashmir with India but the Imran Khan government's vociferous demand and an aggressive campaign for restoring special status under Article 370 in the state signal change of position. (Photo: Twitter)

Pakistan has upped its diplomatic offensive against India since August 5 when the Narendra Modi government scrapped the special status of Jammu and Kashmir enjoyed under Article 370 of the Constitution. The Imran Khan government in Pakistan has approached a host of countries including the P-5, the UN and groupings of Islamic nations for support over the Article 370 move in Jammu and Kashmir but with little success.

Article 370 offered a certain degree of autonomy to Jammu and Kashmir, unlike other states, to have a separate constitution, its own penal code, a separate flag and a special clause of permanent residents with a range of benefits. But it was also considered discriminatory for many others.

For long, Article 370 was considered as a gateway for Jammu and Kashmir to integrate with India. Pakistan never acknowledged this arrangement giving defining unique relation of Jammu and Kashmir with India. For Pakistan, the main objection was to the fact that Article 370 declared that entire Jammu and Kashmir belonged to India, and the merger of Jammu and Kashmir with post-Partition India was valid. The same was held in the first UN resolution as well which Pakistan never showed intent to implement.

Pakistan had refused to recognise the accession of Jammu and Kashmir with India and the negation of the merger was based on the two-nation theory that led to the creation of Pakistan. All Pakistani governments including the current one led by Imran Khan have used Jammu and Kashmir as a tool to justify the creation of Pakistan on the basis of the two-nation theory. For India, the accession of Jammu and Kashmir was a statement of rejection of the two-nation theory.

Now, by resorting to an aggressive campaign for restoration of the pre-August 5 status of Jammu and Kashmir, the Imran Khan government of Pakistan has officially admitted to the validity of Article 370. This translates into an acknowledgement that Jammu and Kashmir legally belongs to India and hence, it does not have a locus standi, a stand that Pakistan never took in public view.

With legally conceding claim on Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan's campaign against Article 370 move by has another significant message. That the real focus of Kashmir dispute between India and Pakistan now shifts on Pakistan-occupied Kashmir that includes Gilgit and Baltistan. This is the position always held by India.

Pakistan has ruled Pakistan-occupied Kashmir placing an iron curtain-administration in the region. Even the political demand for complete integration of Pakistan-occupied Kashmir with other provinces of Pakistan has been feeble in that country. Pakistan never tried to offer same civilian benefits to PoK as rest of Pakistan enjoyed.

This is primarily due to an understanding in the Pakistani establishment of the shaky ground its claim on Kashmir stood. With its international campaign against abrogation of special status of Jammu and Kashmir and calling for bringing back all provisions of Article 370 into effect in the state, Pakistan has built a case for the same in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir - which completes the erstwhile princely state of Jammu and Kashmir.

Pakistan's ante against Article 370 move is also a dampener for its all-weather friend China, which is in illegal occupation of Aksai Chin since 1962. Like Pakistan, China has also been in a sort of negation of Article 370 to question India's territorial integrity over Jammu and Kashmir.

For long, China banked on Pakistan and turned a blind eye to its export of terrorism in the Valley. But by demanding the restoration of special status under Article 370 to Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan has also challenged the occupation of Aksai Chin by China. This late understanding of the Pakistani campaign could be seen in recent Chinese statements emphasising a mutual negotiated settlement of Kashmir issue between India and Pakistan.

The stand taken by the Imran Khan government over the Modi government's Article 370 move also makes the Pakistani gift of 5,882 sq km of land in Shaksgam Valley to China illegal. The area is now known as Trans-Karakoram Tract of China.

This transfer of land in 1962-63 to keep China happy and win it over to counter India becomes an illegal agreement signed by Pakistan. It is like selling someone else's land after occupying it forcefully and knowing that the sale is illegal. With an acknowledgment of the legality of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, Pakistan has questioned Chinese occupation of Kashmir on the second front as well.

Finally, the support to separatism and sponsorship to terrorism in Kashmir, a stated policy of Pakistan becomes a confessional statement of interference in other country's essentially internal matter in the view of Pakistani Prime Minister Imran Khan and his ministers batting for restoration of an Indian law in an Indian state.

This campaign by the Imran Khan government over Article 370 is certainly good news for India, which has been unilaterally trying to make the world understand the status of Jammu and Kashmir in relation to the rest of India. Pakistan's Imran Khan government, in the past few weeks, has furthered India's efforts in this regard.