'Simla Agreement not dead': Pakistan distances from bold claim; defence minister's foot-in-mouth moment
Khawaja Asif
declared the 1972
Simla Agreement
'a dead document,' the country's foreign ministry clarified that no decision has been made to revoke any bilateral agreements with India, including the landmark pact.
A senior foreign office official, while responding Asif's comments, said that while recent developments have triggered internal discussions in Islamabad, there has been no formal move to scrap existing agreements with New Delhi.
'At present, there is no formal decision to terminate any bilateral accord,' news agency PTI quoted the official as saying. He indicated that all treaties, including the Simla Agreement, remain operational.
The clarification comes amid heightened tensions following the recent Pahalgam terror attack and subsequent Indian strikes on terror infrastructure in Pakistan and Pakistan-occupied Kashmir on May 7. Pakistan had threatened to review the Simla Agreement in the aftermath but had not made any official moves until Asif's televised remarks stirred speculation.
During a televised interview on Tuesday, defence minister Asif said that India's "unilateral actions", particularly the 2019 revocation of Article 370 in Jammu and Kashmir, had rendered the Simla framework obsolete.
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'The Simla Agreement is now a dead document. We are back to the 1948 position, when the United Nations declared the Line of Control a ceasefire line,' Asif had claimed.
'Whether the Indus Waters Treaty is suspended or not, Simla is already over,' he added.
Asif also suggested that the bilateral structure had collapsed and that future disputes between India and Pakistan would need to be addressed via multilateral or international mechanisms.
However, the foreign office's statement effectively distanced the Pakistani government from the defence minister's remarks.
The Simla Agreement, signed in 1972 in the aftermath of the Indo-Pak war, outlines key principles meant to guide peaceful bilateral relations and resolve disputes through dialogue.
Hostilities between India and Pakistan flared again in early May, with Pakistan attempting retaliatory attacks on Indian military posts from May 8 to 10. These were met with a firm response from India. A ceasefire understanding was eventually reached after talks between the two countries' directors general of military operations on May 10.
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