Pakistan on Friday summoned a senior diplomat from the Indian High Commissioner to convey its "rejection" of India's comments on the recent elections in Pakistani-occupied Kashmir (PoK). "The Chargé d'Affaires of India was appointed to the Foreign Ministry to express Pakistan's total opposition to the Indian protest and to reaffirm Pakistan's clear and consistent position on the dispute between Jammu and Kashmir," the Foreign Ministry said in a statement in Islamabad. India on Thursday rejected the July 25 PoK elections won by Prime Minister Imran Khan's Pakistani party TehreekeInsaf, saying the "cosmetic exercise" was nothing more than an attempt by Pakistan to "camouflage its illegal occupation ". a strong protest on the matter.
In response to the elections in Pakistani-occupied Kashmir, Foreign Ministry spokesman Arindam Bagchi said that Pakistan "has no seat in these Indian territories" and that it should evacuate all Indian territories under its illegal occupation. "The so-called elections on Indian territory under the illegal occupation of Pakistan are nothing more than an attempt by Pakistan to cover up its illegal occupation and the material changes it has made in those areas," he said in an online press conference.
Mr Bagchi also strongly opposed the references to Jammu and Kashmir in a recent joint Pakistani-Chinese press release declaring that the union territories of JK and Ladakh were and will remain an integral and inalienable part of India. India has claimed that Jammu and Kashmir "were, are, and will be an integral part of India". New Delhi also previously told Islamabad that problems related to Jammu and Kashmir were internal affairs and that the country was able to resolve its own problems.
The Pakistani Ministry of Foreign Affairs (FO) announced that the dispute over Jammu and Kashmir between Pakistan and India had been on the agenda of the UN Security Council since 1948 and was still an internationally recognized dispute, as stated in the resolutions on relevant issues of the Security Council means. The CO said India had unilaterally sought to change the internationally recognized controversial status of Jammu and Kashmir and the demographic structure of the territory in violation of UN Security Council resolutions. The statement also called on India to take steps to implement UN Security Council resolutions on Kashmir.
Pakistan downgraded and suspended trade with India after the Indian government revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir in August 2019. India has argued that the issue relating to Article 370 of the Indian Constitution is a wholly internal matter for the country.