ISLAMABAD: A senior official from Pakistan’s Ministry of Foreign Affairs on Thursday said that no formal decision has been made so far to abrogate any bilateral agreement with India.
The official was responding to media queries regarding recent remarks by Defence Minister Khawaja Asif, who declared the 1972 Simla Agreement with India “dead” in light of current geopolitical developments.
On Wednesday, Khawaja Asif said that the 1972 Simla Agreement with India is “dead” in the current geopolitical context, stating that Pakistan has effectively returned to the 1948 position regarding Kashmir, and the Line of Control (LoC) should now be viewed as a ceasefire line.
In an interview with a private television channel, the Defence Minister said that while the Simla Agreement had initially committed both India and Pakistan to resolving disputes bilaterally, that framework had collapsed due to unilateral Indian actions in recent years.
“The Simla Agreement is now a dead document. We are back to the 1948 position, when the United Nations declared the Line of Control (LoC) a ceasefire line after the ceasefire and resolutions,” Asif said.
The Simla Agreement was signed after the third war between the two countries in 1971 and lays down principles meant to govern bilateral relations, including respect for a ceasefire line in Kashmir.
His statement came after New Delhi’s announcement to unilaterally terminate the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) followed by unprovoked attacks inside Pakistan last month, which led to the military clashes between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.
The last month’s military confrontation between the two countries was triggered by the April 22 Pahalgam attack in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir (IIOJK) that left 26 tourists dead, with India blaming Pakistan for the attack without offering any evidence.
Pakistan condemned the Pahalgam incident and strongly rejected Indian allegations. Pakistan also repeatedly offered a neutral and transparent international investigation into the attack.
However, India failed to respond to Pakistan’s offer and instead continued with its aggressive posture.
Pakistan’s armed forces had launched a large-scale retaliatory military action, named “Operation Bunyan-um-Marsoos”, and targeted several Indian military targets across multiple regions.
Pakistan downed its six fighter jets, including three Rafale, and dozens of drones. After at least 87 hours, the war between the two nuclear-armed nations ended on May 10 with a ceasefire agreement brokered by the United States.
