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Pakistan on Thursday rejected India's plans for elections in Jammu and Kashmir, saying it could not replace a UN-mandated plebiscite to decide the state's future.
A foreign ministry spokesman also said 'all indications' were India would manipulate the polls, due by October, which it sees as vital to end the 55-year-old dispute with Pakistan.
India hopes the polls will enhance the legitimacy of the state assembly and bolster its claim to Kashmir, which is at the heart of a six-month-old military standoff between the two nuclear-armed neighbours.
But the Pakistani spokesman said the long-standing UN Security Council resolutions on the issue 'clearly stipulate that the final disposition of the state of Jammu and Kashmir would be in accordance with the will of Kashmiris expressed through a free and impartial plebiscite'.
"It is, therefore, clear that no election under the Indian Constitution and under the barrel of Indian guns could be a substitute for a free and fair plebiscite under UN auspices," he said.
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