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| Changing nomenclature from PoK to PoJK | | A great development | |
Neha
JAMMU, June 3: The June 1 PTI report emanating from New Delhi suggested that the Narendra Modi government at the centre was planning to change the nomenclature of the illegally-occupied areas from Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir (PoK) to Pakistan-occupied-Jammu & Kashmir (PoJK). The report also aid that the government will affect this change in the next few days through a parliamentary resolution or through a government notification. If correct, there are reasons to believe the report, it is a great development - a development that will change the whole discourse on the state and will also tell Pakistan and Kashmiri separatists that the new government means business and that it considers the entire State of Jammu & Kashmir as it existed on August 15, 1947 an integral part of India. It needs to be underlined that Pakistan invaded the Indian territories in Jammu & Kashmir in October 1947 and the invasion continued for more than two months. It occupied illegally parts of Jammu & Kashmir. Pakistan terms these areas as "Azad Kashmir" and Gilgit-Baltistan and India terms these regions as PoK. Even the Parliamentary resolutions of 1994 and 2013 described these areas as PoK. Remember, while Gilgit and Baltistan were parts of Ladakh region, Muzzaffarabad was part of Kashmir region and the remaining areas part of Jammu province. Notwithstanding these facts, New Delhi invariably termed these areas as PoK and it got an official stamp a number of times, including in 1994 during the time of Prime Minister P V Narasimha Rao. It was an anomaly. In fact, this anomaly helped Pakistan and Kashmiri separatists mislead the international opinion. This anomaly had given the international community to understand that all the parts of the state which were occupied by Pakistan after invasion, loot and plunder, rape and arson were parts of the Kashmir province.
The new government, according to the PTI reports, is not only contemplating a change in the nomenclature of PoK, but is also working overtime to mitigate the hardships of refugees, including West Pakistan refugees and border migrants, and meeting their age-old demands - demands which can be fulfilled. There are recommendations from the state government to the central government and there are Supreme Court's advice to the state government and the central government that both the governments could heed to address the issues facing the refugees, especially those from West Pakistan, who do not exercise citizenship rights in the state even after over 66 years of their stat in different parts of Jammu province. All in all, it can be said that the new government has started well. One can hope for a new day of rational hopes and just aspirations. |
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