Prime Minister Imran Khan on Tuesday constituted a seven-member committee tasked with making recommendations to formulate Pakistan’s legal, political, and diplomatic response to the recent developments in occupied Kashmir. The committee includes senior officials, such as the Foreign Minister of Pakistan, Attorney General of Pakistan, Foreign Secretary of Pakistan, the Director General of Inter-Services Intelligence, the Director General Military Operations, the Director General Inter-Services Public Relations, and Ahmer Bilal Soofi, Founding Partner of Pakistan’s leading law-firm ABS & Co.
The committee’s formation follows India’s decision, through a presidential order, to revoke the special autonomy of occupied Kashmir, which had been in place for seven decades. The move has been accompanied by an indefinite curfew, currently in its third day, and the house arrest of elected Kashmiri leaders.
The revocation of Article 370 of the Indian constitution now permits citizens from across India to acquire property and permanently settle in occupied Kashmir. Critics, including Kashmiri representatives and observers of India’s Hindu nationalist-led government, view this as a deliberate attempt to alter the demographics of the Muslim-majority region.
Additionally, Indian Home Minister Amit Shah introduced and passed legislation to bifurcate the former state into two union territories: Jammu and Kashmir, which will retain a legislature, and Ladakh, which will be directly administered by New Delhi.
Pakistan has strongly condemned these developments and reaffirmed its commitment to “exercise all possible options to counter the illegal steps” taken by India. In line with this, President Arif Alvi summoned a joint parliamentary session to enable the political leadership to formulate a coordinated strategy on the future of occupied Kashmir.
The ABS & Co team with its deep expertise on public international law continues to monitor these developments closely, with Mr. Soofi’s legal expertise playing a pivotal role in advising the government on potential legal and diplomatic courses of action.
