Members of the Commission display the final delimitation order for the Union Territory on Thursday.
Highlights
- Pakistan's Foreign Ministry said that the entire exercise was "farcical"
- J&K Delimitation Commission issued final notification on Thursday
- The new order reserved 43 Assembly seats for Jammu, 47 for Kashmir
Pakistan rejected the report of India's ‘Delimitation Commission’ which finalised its order for the Union Territory of Jammu and Kashmir. The Indian Charge d’Affaires (Cd’A) was called to the Ministry of Foreign Affairs and handed over a demarche conveying the Pakistan government's 'categorical rejection of the report of Delimitation Commission’. Islamabad claimed the report on J&K "aimed at disenfranchising and disempowering the Muslim majority population."
Pakistan's Ministry of Foreign Affairs said that the entire exercise was "farcical". "Through this effort, India only wanted to lend ‘legitimacy’ to its illegal actions of August 5, 2019," it added.
Redrawing the electoral map of Jammu and Kashmir, a three-member Delimitation Commission on Thursday earmarked 47 assembly seats for Kashmir division and 43 for Jammu in its final order submitted just a day before its two-year tenure was to end. A gazette notification was issued after the panel, headed by retired Supreme Court judge Ranjana Prakash Desai, signed the final order giving Jammu six additional seats and one more to Kashmir.
The panel was set up in March 2020. It was granted a one-year extension last year. In February, it was given a two-month extension to complete its task. Its term was to otherwise end on March 6. For the first time, nine seats have been proposed for Scheduled Tribes.
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