Pakistan Rejects Jammu & Kashmir Delimitation Report

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What has happened?

On Thursday, a commission set up by the Centre submitted its final report for the delimitation of Assembly and parliamentary constituencies in Jammu and Kashmir.
The changes have been opposed by all political parties barring the BJP.

Delimitation is the act of redrawing boundaries of an Assembly or Lok Sabha seat to represent changes in population over time.
The objective is to redraw boundaries (based on the data of the last Census) in a way so that the population of all seats, as far as practicable, be the same throughout the State.

Delimitation became necessary when the Jammu and Kashmir Reorganisation Act, 2019 increased the number of seats in the Assembly.
The erstwhile J&K state had 111 seats — 46 in Kashmir, 37 in Jammu, and four in Ladakh — plus 24 seats reserved for Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.
When Ladakh was carved out as a Union Territory, J&K was left with 107 seats, including the 24 for PoK. The Reorganisation Act increased the seats to 114 — 90 for Jammu & Kashmir, besides the 24 reserved for PoK.

In the erstwhile state, delimitation of parliamentary constituencies was governed by the Constitution of India and That of Assembly seats was carried out by the then state government under the Jammu and Kashmir Representation of the People Act, 1957.
After abrogation of J&K’s special status in 2019, the delimitation of both Assembly and parliamentary seats is governed by the Constitution.
The Delimitation Commission was set up on March 6, 2020 . Headed by retired Supreme Court Justice Ranjana Prakash Desai, it has the Chief Election Commissioner and J&K’s Chief Electoral Officer as members, and J&K’s five MPs as associate members.
The time given to the panel, initially one year, was extended several times as the National Conference’s three MPs initially boycotted its proceedings.
The first draft recommendations on January 20 suggested an increase of six Assembly seats for Jammu and one for Kashmir; on February 6, it submitted its second draft report.

The Commission has increased seven Assembly seats — six in Jammu (now 43 seats) and one in Kashmir (now 47).
It has also made massive changes in the structure of the existing Assembly seats.

The Commission has recommended “provision of at least two members from the community of Kashmiri Migrants (Kashmiri Hindus) in the Legislative Assembly.
It has also recommended that Centre should consider giving representation in the J&K Legislative Assembly to the displaced persons from Pakistan-occupied Kashmir, who migrated to Jammu after Partition”.

While the basis for delimitation is the 2011 Census, the changes mean that 44% of the population (Jammu) will vote in 48% of the seats, while the 56% living in Kashmir will vote in the remaining 52% of the seats.
In the earlier set-up, Kashmir’s 56% had 55.4% of the seats and Jammu’s 43.8% had 44.5% of the seats.
Of the six new seats in Jammu, four have a predominantly Hindu population. Reservation of seats for Kashmiri Pandits and displaced persons from PoK, too, would help the BJP.

Constituency boundaries are being redrawn only in J&K when delimitation for the rest of the country has been frozen until 2026.
The last delimitation exercise in J&K was carried out in 1995.
In 2002, the then J&K government led by Farooq Abdullah amended the J&K Representation of the People Act to freeze the delimitation exercise until 2026, as in the rest of the country.
This was challenged in the J&K High Court and then the Supreme Court, both of which upheld the freeze.
Again, political parties in Jammu and Kashmir have been pointing out that the Delimitation Commission is mandated by the Reorganisation Act, which is sub judice.

On Thursday, Pakistan’s Foreign Office, which summoned India’s Charge d’Affaires to the ministry, Told the Indian diplomat that the Delimitation Commission was aimed at “disenfranchising and disempowering” the Muslim majority population of Jammu and Kashmir.
Pakistan categorically rejects the report of the so-called ‘Delimitation Commission’ for Jammu and Kashmir, the Foreign Office said in a statement.
The Indian side was conveyed that the entire exercise was farcical and had already been rejected by the cross-section of political parties in Jammu and Kashmir.
India has categorically told the international community that the scrapping of Article 370 in 2019 by the country’s Parliament was its internal matter.
India also advised Pakistan to accept the reality and stop all anti-India propaganda.

Q) Which of the following statement is correct regarding Delimitation Commission?