Context: On August 4, Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan announced a new political map of Pakistan. With this, Pakistan became the third country to launch a new political map after India and Nepal did the same in November 2019 and May 2020, respectively. India had reiterated its territorial claims in Jammu and Kashmir, and Ladakh with the new map; this triggered a reaction from Nepal which contested Indian claims in the Kalapani region of Pithoragarh district. The territorial claims of Pakistan are, however, of a far greater extent and challenge many of the past understandings and treaties.
What are the features of the new map?

• The new political map of Pakistan has claimed the entire region of Jammu and Kashmir stretching all the way to the edge of Ladakh. The map also claims Junagarh and Manavadar, a former princely State and territory, respectively, that are part of present-day Gujarat.
• It leaves out a claim line at the eastern end of J&K indicating Pakistan’s willingness to make China a third party in the Kashmir issue. This clearly runs counter to the Simla Agreement which treated Kashmir as a bilateral matter.
• At the launch of the map, Pakistan Prime Minister said the border in that area will be fixed after resolving the Kashmir issue. Pakistan also claimed the entire territory and water bodies that fall in the Sir Creek region in the westernmost part of India.

How different is it from previous ones?

• A similar map has been part of school textbooks of Pakistan for many years which highlights the territorial aspiration of Pakistan over the northern part of the subcontinent.
• The document also maintains bits of reality on the ground as it shows the Line of Control in Kashmir in a red-dotted line.

What will be the impact of this cartographical warfare?

• The map is likely to lead to changes in Pakistan’s position on territorial disputes with India. By demanding the entire Jammu and Kashmir region, Mr. Khan is changing the main features of Pakistan’s Kashmir discourse as it includes the Jammu region prominently.
• The inclusion of Junagarh and Manavadar opens fundamental issues of territorial sovereignty of India. Manavadar, a princely territory, joined India on February 15, 1948 and Indian troops marched into Junagarh in September that year incorporating it into Indian territory.
• By normalising Islamabad’s claims over these former princely territories, Pakistan is most likely to assert its rights over the former princely State of Hyderabad as well.
• The map may be used to provide legal cover for some of Islamabad’s territorial ambitions, especially in Kashmir and Sir Creek.

What does Pakistan plan to gain by this exercise?

• Sir Creek is a collection of water bodies that extend from the Arabian Sea deep inside the territory of Kutch and is rich in biodiversity and mangrove forests. India’s position on Sir Creek is based on the Kutch arbitration case of 1966-69.
• The new map can be used to reassert Pakistan’s claims regarding the Rann which it had lost in the arbitration conducted in Geneva. India’s position regarding Sir Creek is based on the fact that the arbitration had granted the entire Rann and its marshy areas to India while leaving the solid land across the Rann to Pakistan.
• By demanding the demarcation to shift towards the eastern bank, Pakistan appears to be going back also on the spirit of the Rann of Kutch arbitration where the overwhelming evidence of maps supported India’s claims over the Rann and its marshlands.

Are there any claims on its western borders?

• The map is silent about territorial claims in the west and northwest of Pakistan. It indicates Islamabad’s acceptance of the Durand Line as the border with Afghanistan.
• The reality on the ground however shows problems that continue to haunt Pakistan on that front as well where law and order has been difficult to maintain because of free movement of armed fighters.
• A deadly clash between Afghan civilians and Pakistani troops led to the loss of at least 20 Afghan lives during the last Eid ul Azha holidays when Afghans wanted to cross to the other side of the traditional Pakhtoon territory which is part of Pakistan’s Khyber-Pakhtoonkhwa province. The resultant situation has placed Afghan and Pakistani troops in a confrontational position.

India’s Response:

• India has called Pakistan's move as an exercise in political absurdity, which lays untenable claims to the Indian territories.
• These assertions have neither legal validity nor international credibility and it only confirms the reality of Pakistan’s obsession with territorial aggrandisement supported by cross-border terrorism.

Concerns for India:

• This is the second time in the recent past where India’s neighbouring country has published a new map claiming India’s territories. Nepal was the first country to do so.
• Nepal published its news map claiming the territories of the Kalapani region.
• Closeness of Nepal, Pakistan towards China.
• Recently, China also changed the status quo along the Line of Actual Control (LAC) in the western sector in its favour.

Road Ahead

• Over the last one year, Pakistan has made several attempts to raise the change in Jammu and Kashmir’s status from a state to a union territory at several international fora but hasn’t been able to get much traction. Further, with Pakistan, India continues to maintain that terror and talks cannot go hand-in-hand.
• With Nepal turning hostile, Sri Lanka tilted towards China, Bangladesh miffed over the Citizenship (Amendment) Act, 2019 and India out of Iran’s Chabahar railway link project (which India was to have constructed), there is a relative decline in India’s sphere of influence, especially in its neighbourhood and the extended neighbourhood. This demands a deeper examination of the foreign policy.
• If China and Pakistan continue to behave they are then too can play the same game like in Balochistan, taiwan which put them into global push back.