Excelsior Correspondent
JAMMU, June 2: The Government of India has decided to rename Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) as Pakistan occupied Jammu Kashmir (PoJK). An announcement to this effect was likely to be made within the next few days.
India has always maintained that PoK, which is called by Pakistan as `Azad Kashmir’, is integral part of India, and has even reserved 24 seats for its in Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly.
Official sources told the Excelsior that the Centre planned to change name of PoK to PoJK and there were possibilities that it would be done through a Parliament resolution. There was a 1994 unanimous Parliament resolution that PoK is an integral part of India and that only unsettled dispute between India and Kashmir is PoK.
The resolution was adopted in the Parliament during PV Narasimha Rao regime.
Sources said in all official records the Centre and Jammu and Kashmir Government had been writing disputed territory of Kashmir in Pakistan as PoK (Pakistan occupied Kashmir). However, it has been pointed out by various political observers and experts that since entire State including the territory held by Pakistan is part of Jammu and Kashmir, PoK should be renamed as PoJK.
They added that the Government of India has conceded the demand and was likely to rename PoK as PoJK either through a Parliament resolution or through an official order, whatever was feasible.
A vast territory of Jammu and Kashmir has been illegally occupied by Pakistan, which was divided by the Line of Control (LoC).
India has reserved 24 seats in Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly for PoK but they were lying vacant.
Sources pointed out that the Government wanted to send a strong message to Pakistan by renaming PoK as PoJK that entire Jammu and Kashmir State including the territory illegally held by Pakistan is one and that entire State is an integral part of the country.
Renaming PoK as PoJK is being described as new Government’s strategy on Jammu and Kashmir under which it was planning comprehensive plan for return of Kashmiri Pandit migrants to the Kashmir Valley with a package and addressing issues of all refugees including those from West Pakistan, Pakistan occupied Kashmir and Chhamb etc.
The return of Kashmir Pandits to their homes and hearths after more than two and a half decades of migration with honour and dignity and addressing issues of all refugees had been part of Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s campaign as the BJP leader during elections, when he had addressed two rallies in Jammu on December 1, 2013 and March 26, 2014 (Hiranagar).
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