Islamabad, September 7, 2026: Pakistan on Monday rejected India’s assertions regarding the status of Jammu and Kashmir, maintaining that New Delhi’s unilateral claims of sovereignty could not alter the territory’s internationally recognised disputed status.
The Foreign Office statement came after India said a recent United Nations resolution on cartographic representation did not endorse any particular map, projection or depiction of natural boundaries.
The Indian Ministry of External Affairs had said on Sunday that its territory, including Jammu and Kashmir and Ladakh, should be depicted in accordance with India’s “official map” and that any deviation was unacceptable.
Responding to the assertion, Foreign Office Spokesperson Sajjad Haider Khan said Pakistan “categorically rejects India’s baseless assertions regarding the status of Jammu and Kashmir which are contrary to internationally recognised facts.”
“India’s unilateral actions and continued illegal occupation cannot alter the internationally recognised disputed status of Jammu and Kashmir,” he said.
The spokesperson described the Kashmir issue as one of the oldest unresolved internationally recognised disputes on the agenda of the UN Security Council.
He said relevant UN resolutions provided that the final disposition of Jammu and Kashmir should be determined in accordance with the Security Council resolutions and the will of the Kashmiri people through a free and impartial plebiscite under UN auspices.
Khan said official UN maps depicting Jammu and Kashmir as a disputed territory remained the relevant cartographic representation of its current legal status.
“India’s so-called official maps and unilateral claims of sovereignty have no bearing on the status of the disputed territory,” he said.
The FO urged the international community to press India to end human rights violations in Indian Illegally Occupied Jammu and Kashmir and fulfil its commitment to the Kashmiri people’s right to self-determination in accordance with the relevant UN Security Council resolutions.
The statement followed Friday’s UN vote on a resolution backed by 164 countries, including India, concerning the adoption of the Equal Earth cartographic projection as an option for improving the accuracy of the world’s cartographic representation.
The resolution encouraged member states to adopt the Equal Earth projection in place of the traditional Mercator projection, which was developed by Flemish cartographer Gerardus Mercator in 1569 primarily for maritime navigation.
The United States criticised the resolution, saying such moves were among the reasons the UN was “losing its credibility.”
