Debunking propaganda from a laymen's perspective
By Agnostic Musli
Myth: Pakistan ceded the Trans-Karakoram tract or Shaksgam valley to
China in the Trans-Karakoram pact thus showing utter disregard for
Kashmiri sovereignty or its own sovereignty.
Fact: Pakistan did not ‘gift’ any Kashmiri land to China. In reality, it
actually gained 1942 square kilometres (750 square miles) from the
Chinese in the 1963 Sino-Pakistan boundary agreement. In fact, the
Trans-Karakoram Tract, that Delhi claims has been ‘gifted’ by Islamabad
to Beijing, was never under Pakistani control that they could have
vacated it and given it to China. The Pakistan-China Treaty is in the
public domain, as are the resulting maps with demarcated boundaries that
clearly illustrate Pakistan gaining the aforementioned amount of area
and adding it to Gilgit-Baltistan rather than the other way around.
So let's get to the root of the issue and understand how it all started.
The original territorial demarcation issue was between China and British
India, which arose as a result of 1846 Amritsar treaty that left the
border with China unmarked. British authorities assigned W.H. Johnson, a
survey officer, to propose a line which was to be sent to the Chinese
government for negotiations. Authors Christopher Snedden and Alastair
Lamb state that Mr. Johnson was unhappy with the working conditions
under the East India Company and sought to join the court of the
Maharaja of Kashmir instead. To impress the Maharaja, he increased the
size of the state of Kashmir in the map he created by including Aksai
Chin and Shaksgam Valley in Kashmir, both of which were under Chinese
control at that point in time.
British authorities in Calcutta were annoyed by the decision to
demarcate the border in a manner that showed Chinese controlled
territory as being a part of British India and Johnson was disciplined
by his superiors and his map rejected. The Maharaja, however, thought
that Johnson had magically increased his territory by drawing a few
lines on the map and thus, as a reward, he was offered a job by the
Maharaja and appointed Wazir or Governor of Ladakh in 1872.
The line he created is called the Johnson Line and, as mentioned above,
was rejected by British India, let alone accepted by China. The East
India Company then appointed Sir Claude MacDonald to create the new
official British line which he did. The new demarcation by Sir Claude
MacDonald did not include the Chinese areas that W.H Johnson had
included in his demarcation to curry favor with the Maharajah. The
British sent it to the Chinese on 14th March 1899 with the following
proposal:
1. China will withdraw all claims to Hunza valley
2. British India will withdraw all claims to Shaksgam/Raskam and Taghdumbash
This is the McDonald Line. The Chinese did not respond, prompting the
British to inform them that their silence was taken as assent and
Britain would act accordingly, which Britain did.
Fast forward, independence happens, Pakistan and India become free, fight a
war and divide Kashmir. But this is where the problem starts. Instead
of taking up the McDonald line, the Indian government officially adopted
the Johnson line because the increased land (Or rather lines on a
paper) impressed Nehru as much as it had impressed the Maharaja. India
made it official in 1954 on their published map.
Pakistan obviously did not have to tow Mr. Nehru's ridiculous line. Pakistan recognized the McDonald Line......And that's all.
Actually, that's not all. When Pakistan cited historical evidence and
the historical connection of Gilgit-Baltistan to regions in Hunza, the
Karakoram watershed, K-2 (Half), Shimshal Pass etc, Zhou EnLai (the then
premier of the Peoples Republic of China) acknowledged the validity of
those arguments and Pakistan obtained those territories from China and
made them part of Gilgit-Baltistan.
Pakistan further asserted that traditional grazing grounds of the Hunza
people be made part of Gligit-Baltistan because their loss would cause
the people of the region huge distress, given the impact on their
traditional way of life. The Chinese Premier, after reviewing the
proposal with Xinjiang province and getting the assent of the Uyghur in
China, agreed with the Pakistani proposal on making these lands a part
of Gilgit Baltistan.
All this area combined totaled 1942 square kilometres (750 square miles).
And that's not all, Pakistan also took care to add a provision to secure
Kashmiri sovereignty in the future, pending a resolution of the
dispute. Article 6 of the treaty between China & Pakistan states:
"The two parties have agreed that after the settlement of the Kashmir
dispute between Pakistan and India, the sovereign authority concerned
will reopen negotiations with the Government of the People’s Republic of
China on the boundary as described in Article. Two of the present
agreement, so as to sign a formal boundary treaty to replace the present
agreement, provided that in the event of the sovereign authority being
Pakistan, the provisions of the present agreement and of the aforesaid
protocol shall be maintained in the formal boundary treaty to be signed
between the People’s Republic of China and the Islamic Republic of
Pakistan"
If you still don't understand how groundbreaking this deal was, imagine
this. China went to all out war against India for this line which they
absolutely refused to change. Whereas for Pakistan and Kashmir, China
ceded 750 square miles and also recognized that a future sovereign
Kashmiri government could renegotiate this border when they were free.
Noted Indian Lawyer and Author on Kashmir, AG Noorani Noted this in his article, aptly named "Map Fetish".
https://web.archive.org/web/2020050...e.thehindu.com/the-nation/article30164084.ece
Anwar H Syed in in China and Pakistan: Diplomacy of an Entente Cordiale wrote:
George L. Singleton reconfirmed Pakistan’s claim as shown in the excerpt below:
So, in conclusion. The Indian argument that Pakistan violated the UNSC
Resolutions on the Disputed Territory of Jammu & Kashmir or that it
betrayed/sold out the Kashmiris by 'giving away their land to China' is
invalid and baseless.
For more details and references used, please see below:
Question #13 by Kashmiri Academic Dr. Makhdomi
https://web.archive.org/save/https://www.greaterkashmir.com/news/opinion/question-number-13/
Map Fetish by AG Noorani
https://web.archive.org/web/2020050...e.thehindu.com/the-nation/article30164084.ece
Facing the truth by AG Noorani
https://web.archive.org/web/2020050...hehindu.com/world-affairs/article30211220.ece
Who Ceded Land by Dr. Ahmad Rashid Malik Director of the China-Pakistan
Study Centre (CPSC) at the Institute of Strategic Studies Islamabad
https://web.archive.org/save/https://www.pakistantoday.com.pk/2016/06/26/who-ceded-the-land/
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