Why Pakistan claimed Junagadh in Gujarat as its own in new political map

Guwahati: Pakistan issued a new political map of the country on Tuesday showing several parts of neighboring India as its territory.

Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan unveiled the new political map that includes all of Jammu & Kashmir, Ladakh, Sir Creek, and Junagadh. Khan and Pakistan Foreign Minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi have said this would be the new map of Pakistan.

While Jammu and Kashmir have been a bone of contention between India and Pakistan and this quarrel is well documented, the story of Junagadh is not.

This goes back to 1947 when British India was partitioned into India and Pakistan.

After the partition, the princely state of Hyderabad which was ruled by the Muslim Nizam wanted to join Pakistan. Similarly, the princely state of Junagadh in coastal Gujarat wanted to join Pakistan following the partition.

Junagadh was in the Kathiawar region, where most other princely states had already acceded to India. The ruler of Junagadh was Nawab Mahabatkhan Rasulkhanji.

However, the Hindu citizens of Junagadh, who formed the majority of the population and India did not take the decision well and protested against it, since they saw the Nawab's decision as a threat.

Following the revolt, India sent in troops and in September the then Prime Minister Jawaharlal Nehru proposed a plebiscite there.

The plebiscite that was held in February 1948, had around 95 percent of the voters backing the option of merging with India, while Pakistan got 91 votes.

Pakistan, however, refused to accept the verdict and had taken the issue to the UN Security Council in 1948. But Pakistan did not pursue Junagadh for too long and eventually, it was dropped from the map.

The issue was largely forgotten by both sides for years until 2007, when Muhammad Jahangir Khan, the successor of the Nawabs who was now settled in Karachi brought up the issue again. In 2016, he claimed that the Instrument of Accession of Junagadh was still valid under the Vienna Convention Law of Treatise.

India dismissed Pakistan's move as "an exercise in political absurdity", saying it was laying unsustainable claims to areas in the Indian state of Gujarat and "our Union Territories of Jammu and Kashmir and of Ladakh".

The statement from the Ministry of External Affairs (MEA) further said: "these ridiculous assertions have neither legal validity nor international credibility".

The statement added, "In fact, this new effort only confirms the reality of Pakistan's obsession with territorial aggrandizement supported by cross-border terrorism."

Gujarat Chief Minister Vijay Rupani lashed out at Pakistan, calling the changes in the map "preposterous".

Rupani tweeted, "This so called "political map" of Pakistan released by Prime Minister Imran Khan today is a glaring example of how disconnected Pakistan PM is with ground realities. Pakistan will never succeed in its wicked design of undermining the unity and integrity of India."

"This action of Pakistan is both preposterous and obnoxious. Gujarat condemns this absurd act of Pakistan unequivocally," he added.

Pakistan's inclusion of J&K and Ladakh appears to be a tit-for-tat for India's inclusion of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir as part of the union territory of Jammu & Kashmir, and of Gilgit Baltistan as part of Ladakh in the new map, the government released on November 2 after the re-organization of J&K came into effect on October 31 last year.