MUZAFFARABAD (Kashmir English): Pakistan has rejected recent claims of Islamabad suspending or terminating any bilateral agreements with India, calling the claims “baseless and misleading”.
In a statement, the Foreign Office spokesperson said that no formal decision has been made to withdraw from the agreement, contrary to media reports suggesting otherwise.
Pakistan remains fully committed to the Simla Agreement, the Foreign Office official said.
“No formal decision on abrogation of any bilateral agreement with India has so far been made,” a senior official of the Foreign Office told Dawn News.
The clarification comes hours after Defence Minister Khawaja Asif said that Pakistan-India relations have reverted to the 1948 position, and that the Simla Agreement with Delhi was no longer applicable.
He further declared that the Indo-Pak Simla Agreement stood “terminated”, adding that the Line of Control (LoC) should now be considered a ceasefire line and dialogue is required regarding its status.
India and Pakistan signed the Simla Agreement in 1972 after the 1971 war between the two countries, which New Delhi won and led to the creation of Bangladesh. One of its main clauses was that India and Pakistan both agreed to bilaterally discuss and resolve the issue of the disputed Himalayan territory of Kashmir.
