Thaindian News

Islamabad/New Delhi, Sep 11 (IANS) Pakistan Friday rejected the Indian protest over the Gilgit-Baltistan empowerment and self-governance order, saying New Delhi had no locus standi in the matter.
The rejection came on the day two protest notes were handed over to the Pakistani high commission in New Delhi by the Indian external affairs ministry on Gilgit-Baltistan and the construction of the 7,000 MW Bunji Dam in Pakistan-administered Kashmir, Online news agency reported.

India’s deputy high commissioner in Islamabad was called to the Foreign Office by the director general (South Asia) and told Islamabad rejects New Delhi’s interference on Gilgit-Baltistan, as also the Indian claim that Jammu and Kashmir was an integral part of India.

In New Delhi, external affairs ministry spokesperson Vishnu Prakash told reporters: “The government of India lodged a protest against the construction of (the) project located in a part of Jammu and Kashmir under the illegal occupation of Pakistan.”

The ministry lodged the protest with Pakistan’s deputy high commissioner Riffat Masood here, officials said. India’s high commission in Islamabad will also lodge a formal protest with Pakistan’s Foreign Office soon.

Pakistan and China signed a memorandum of understanding in August for the construction of a dam at Bunji in Astore district in Gilgit-Baltistan, earlier known as the Northern Areas, during President Asif Ali Zardari’s Beijing visit.

Earlier, New Delhi had also protested against the construction of the Neelam Jhelum hydropower project and Bhasa dam in what it calls Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir, which is referred to as ‘Azaad Kashmir’ by Islamabad.

The dam, one of the eight hydel projects shortlisted for construction with a capacity to generate 7,000 MW of electricity, has triggered anxieties in India about growing Chinese activities in Pakistan-occupied Kashmir.

India and Pakistan have fought three wars over Jammu and Kashmir, which both countries claim.

Jammu and Kashmir is one of the issues the two neighbours are trying to resolve in their composite dialogue that New Delhi suspended in the aftermath of the Mumbai terror attack last year.

During his visit to Hang Zhou in Zhejiang province and Guangzhou Aug 21-24, Zardari sought Chinese participation in the development of hydel, thermal and solar energy projects, irrigation and fisheries and mobile telephone networks. Pakistani and Chinese companies have signed a slew of pacts in these areas.