Pak PM Imran Khan says no normal relations unless India retracts Article 370 revocation in Kashmir

Islamabad: Pakistan Prime Minister Imran Khan said on Sunday during a live interaction that until and unless India retracts its “actions leading up to the revocation of Article 370” in Kashmir, the relationship between the two neighbouring countries cannot be normalised, according to Pakistani news channel PTV News.

Revocation of Article 370

On August 5, 2019, the Indian government revoked Article 370, thereby repealing the special status accorded to the state of Jammu and Kashmir. Article 370 allowed the state constituent assembly to make its own Constitution and hence gave it an autonomous state power.

Additionally, the state was bifurcated into two union territories Jammu & Kashmir and Ladakh. Political leaders in the state such as Mehbooba Mufti and Omar Abdullah were put under house arrest in the strife-torn region.

Indo-Pak relations

In March this year, Pakistan army chief General Qamar Javed Bajwa had said that it was time for the two countries to “bury the past and move forward.”

“But… our neighbour [India] will have to create a conducive environment, particularly in Kashmir,” Bajwa had said.

India, on the other hand, had made it clear that while it desires normal relations with its neighbour, the onus is on Pakistan to create an environment devoid of hostility and terrorism