THE ASIAN INDEPENDENT UK
Bal Ram Sampla
Geopolitics
In politics, trying to fix a small, immediate problem can sometimes ruin your entire long-term plan. This is exactly what just happened to the Pakistani government in the Islamabad High Court.
The government was under intense pressure from a judge to explain why its secret agencies allegedly kidnapped a Kashmiri poet and journalist named Ahmed Farhad Shah. To protect the security agencies and avoid answering the judge, the government’s top lawyer made a surprising claim:
He argued that Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), which India calls Pakistan-Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (POJK) is actually “foreign territory.” Therefore, he claimed, Pakistani domestic courts have no power there.
While this excuse helped the government dodge a difficult courtroom question for one day, it created a massive geopolitical disaster. By panic-buying a quick excuse, Pakistan scored a historic “own-goal” and trapped itself in a legal argument it cannot win.
1. The Inside Contradiction: Who is Really in Charge?
By calling Kashmir a “foreign land” to escape the local judge, the government accidentally exposed a massive contradiction that the judge immediately pointed out:
”If Kashmir is a foreign country where Pakistan’s domestic laws and courts don’t apply, why are the Pakistani military, intelligence agencies, and federal police forces allowed to operate there so freely?”
You cannot have it both ways. You cannot claim to have total military and political control over a region, but then claim you are completely powerless and detached the moment you are caught breaking the law there. By using this defense, Pakistan made its own security presence in Kashmir look like an illegal, outside occupation.
2. Ruining the “Disputed Territory” Story at the UN
For over 70 years, Pakistan’s main argument to the rest of the world has been very specific: it claims Kashmir is a “disputed territory” whose final future must be decided by a fair public vote organized by the United Nations.
In international law, you cannot tell the United Nations one thing and then tell your own courts the exact opposite just because it is convenient. By officially labeling Kashmir as “foreign,” Pakistan’s lawyers shifted the goalposts. They essentially admitted that the state views Kashmir as an “outside entity when it wants to avoid human rights accountability”.
This heavily damages Pakistan’s credibility whenever it tries to bring up the Kashmir issue at the UN.
3. Handing India a Free Diplomatic Victory
The biggest winner in this courtroom blunder is India. India’s official position has always been that the entire region of Kashmir belongs to India, and that Pakistan is simply occupying it by force.
Pakistan’s lawyers gave India official, signed court transcripts verifying that Islamabad does not think its own constitution or legal protections apply to the people living there. India can now use these exact court records in international meetings to prove that Pakistan’s presence in the region is nothing more than a military occupation.
Conclusion
The Pakistani government panicked over a single domestic kidnapping case, and in doing so, they accidentally tore down decades of their own foreign policy.
By telling a high court that Kashmir is a foreign land beyond the reach of the law, they insulted local Kashmiris, ruined their own arguments at the United Nations, and handed India a massive legal weapon.
It is a classic example of shooting yourself in the foot, trading away a country’s foundational geopolitical stance just to get through a tough day in a local courtroom.
References
1.https://youtu.be/z6zGE4j7fVc?si=krqnOseFKzhYCBUj
2.https://newsonair.gov.in/pakistan-govt-admits-pok-is-a-foreign-territory/
