Defense Minister Khawaja Asif has declared the Simla Agreement of 1972 “death” in the current geopolitical context, saying that Pakistan has effectively returned to the 1948 position on Kashmir, and the control line (LOC) must now be seen as a ceasefire.
In an interview with a private TV channel on Wednesday, the minister said that while the Simla Agreement had initially obliged both India and Pakistan to resolve disputes bilaterally, the framework was collapsed due to unilateral Indian actions in recent years.
“The Simla Agreement is now a dead document. We are back to the position of 1948 when the United Nations declared Loc a ceasefire after the ceasefire and decisions,” he said, referring to the non-media cessation of hostilities in the first India-Pakistani war. “In the future, these disputes will be treated with multilateral or internationally.”
He also raised doubts about the status of other bilateral events and said that “whether the Indus Waters Treaty is suspended or not, Simla is already over.”
In comments on regional tensions, Asif said the threat of war with India remains present. “Pakistan does not want war, but if it is imposed on us, the answer will be even stronger than before,” he warned.
The minister affected the development of conflict and said that Pakistan had emerged as a strengthened defensive power after its past wars with India. “We have become a defensive force. Orders for our JF-17 thunder fighter jets come in,” he said, highlighting Pakistan’s growing defense functions.
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In the question of Afghan refugees, Asif repeated that Afghans should now return to their homeland. “Afghans have to settle in their own country. They have no loyalty to our land,” he noted, adding that the time had come to tackle this question.
The Minister of Defense also highlighted the issue of tax evasion in the country and emphasized that billions of rupees are lost for annual tax riots. “We have to join this leak and divert these funds to the national defense,” he concluded.
