Pakistan's Measures After 5 August 2019: CSS Solved Answer

Exam question: CSS 2021, Q2: Enumerate the measures adopted by Pakistan to spotlight on the plight of Kashmiri people in the Indian occupied Jammu and Kashmir after 5th August 2019.

Syllabus topic: Topic XXIII of the CSS Pakistan Affairs syllabus.

Short answer

Outline for quick revision

Introduction
Diplomatic Measures: Downgrading relations with India; Taking Kashmir to the UN Security Council; The UN General Assembly and world leaders; The OIC and human rights bodies
Documentation and Legal Measures: Dossiers on human rights violations; Challenging demographic change
Political and Symbolic Measures: Days of solidarity; Kashmir Hour; New political map and renamed highway; Parliamentary resolutions
Media and Public Diplomacy: International media and the diaspora; Countering disinformation
Continuity after 2021
Assessment: Achievements; Limitations; Lessons
Conclusion

Reference colours:
Quotation / documentPersonality / historySyllabus bookCurrent referenceOfficial report / policy

1. Introduction

On 5 August 2019, India revoked Articles 370 and 35A of its Constitution, ending the special status of Jammu and Kashmir, divided the state into two union territories, and imposed a curfew and a communications blackout that lasted months. Thousands of political leaders and activists were detained, and new domicile rules later allowed non-Kashmiris to settle in the region.

Pakistan regarded these steps as illegal and unilateral, a violation of UN Security Council resolutions and the Simla Agreement, and launched a multi-dimensional campaign. The question asks Pakistan’s measures to be enumerated, so this answer lists them in five categories and then briefly assesses their impact. The argument is that Pakistan succeeded in bringing Kashmir back onto the international agenda, but could not reverse India’s actions.

Current reference: India revoked the special status of Jammu and Kashmir on 5 August 2019, a move upheld by its Supreme Court in December 2023; and in April 2025 it passed the Waqf (Amendment) Act (presidential assent 5 April 2025), which Indian Muslim organisations protested as an intrusion into their religious endowments.

2. Diplomatic Measures

Downgrading relations with India

Pakistan immediately expelled the Indian High Commissioner, suspended bilateral trade and the Samjhauta and Thar Express trains, and reviewed bilateral arrangements, signalling that relations could not be normal while the changes stood.

Official report / policy: On 7 August 2019, Pakistan’s National Security Committee decided to downgrade diplomatic relations with India and expel the Indian High Commissioner, suspend bilateral trade, review all bilateral arrangements, take the matter to the UN including the Security Council, and observe 14 August in solidarity with Kashmiris and 15 August as a black day.

Taking Kashmir to the UN Security Council

With China’s support, Pakistan secured the first Security Council consultations focused on Kashmir in about half a century, on 16 August 2019, followed by further sessions in 2020. This reaffirmed that Kashmir is an international dispute, not India’s internal matter.

Official report / policy: UN Security Council Resolution 47 (21 April 1948) and the UNCIP resolutions of 13 August 1948 and 5 January 1949, accepted by both India and Pakistan, provided that the question of the accession of Jammu and Kashmir to India or Pakistan would be decided “through the democratic method of a free and impartial plebiscite” held under UN auspices.

The UN General Assembly and world leaders

Prime Minister Imran Khan devoted much of his address to the UN General Assembly (27 September 2019) to Kashmir, warning of a humanitarian catastrophe; Pakistan’s leaders raised the issue with leaders of the US, China, Turkey, Malaysia, Iran and the Gulf states, and Turkey and Malaysia publicly supported Kashmir.

The OIC and human rights bodies

Pakistan convened meetings of the OIC Contact Group on Kashmir, raised the issue in the UN Human Rights Council in Geneva, and wrote regularly to the UN Secretary-General and the High Commissioner for Human Rights.

Official report / policy: The UN Office of the High Commissioner for Human Rights issued its first-ever report on Kashmir in June 2018, and an update in July 2019, documenting killings, the use of pellet guns, arbitrary detention and impunity under laws such as AFSPA, and called for a Commission of Inquiry. India rejected both reports.

3. Documentation and Legal Measures

Dossiers on human rights violations

Pakistan prepared detailed dossiers on killings, detentions, torture and demographic changes, and shared them with the UN and foreign governments.

Current reference: In September 2021, Pakistan released a 131-page dossier alleging 3,432 cases of human rights violations by Indian forces in occupied Kashmir, naming units and officers and citing more than 4.2 million domicile certificates issued under India’s new domicile law, and shared it with the UN and world capitals.

Challenging demographic change

Pakistan highlighted the new domicile law and land laws as attempts to change the Muslim-majority character of the region, contrary to the Fourth Geneva Convention and UN resolutions.

4. Political and Symbolic Measures

Days of solidarity

Pakistan observes Youm-e-Istehsal (Day of Exploitation) on 5 August each year, alongside the long-standing Kashmir Solidarity Day on 5 February, with rallies, a minute’s silence and statements by national leaders.

Kashmir Hour

In August 2019, the Prime Minister called on the nation to observe a weekly “Kashmir Hour” every Friday, bringing traffic to a halt in solidarity with Kashmiris.

New political map and renamed highway

On 4 August 2020, Pakistan issued a new political map showing the whole of Jammu and Kashmir as disputed territory, and renamed Islamabad’s Kashmir Highway as “Srinagar Highway”.

Parliamentary resolutions

Joint sessions of Parliament unanimously condemned India’s actions and reaffirmed Pakistan’s support for the Kashmiris’ right of self-determination.

5. Media and Public Diplomacy

International media and the diaspora

Pakistan used briefings, articles by leaders in international newspapers, and the Pakistani and Kashmiri diaspora in the UK, the US and Europe to organise protests and lobby parliaments.

Countering disinformation

Pakistan exposed India-linked disinformation networks that sought to discredit it on Kashmir in international forums.

Current reference: The EU DisinfoLab investigation Indian Chronicles (December 2020) exposed a 15-year India-linked network of more than 750 fake media outlets in 116 countries and revived defunct NGOs, even using the identity of a professor who had died in 2006, to lobby the UN and EU against Pakistan.

6. Continuity after 2021

Pakistan has continued these efforts: raising Kashmir at the UN every year, using its Security Council term (2025-26) and presidency to push for implementation of UN resolutions, and welcoming offers of international mediation after the 2025 crisis.

Current reference: During its UN Security Council presidency in July 2025, Pakistan secured the unanimous adoption of a resolution urging member states to implement the Council’s resolutions and use the peaceful-settlement tools of Article 33 of the Charter, negotiation, mediation and arbitration, which Pakistan linked to disputes such as Kashmir and Palestine.

Current reference: After the ceasefire of 10 May 2025, President Trump offered to work with India and Pakistan to find “a solution concerning Kashmir”; Pakistan welcomed the offer, while India rejected any third-party mediation. In the same crisis, at Pakistan’s request, the UN Security Council held closed consultations on India-Pakistan tensions (5 May 2025).

7. Assessment

Achievements

Kashmir returned to the UN Security Council after decades; international media, rights groups and parliaments highlighted the curfew and detentions; and the issue became part of Pakistan’s every major diplomatic engagement.

Syllabus book: Victoria Schofield, Kashmir in Conflict: India, Pakistan and the Unending War (2003), traces the Kashmir dispute to the events of 1947, the disputed accession of the Maharaja and the boundary award that gave India a land route to Jammu and Kashmir, and argues that the Kashmiri people’s own voice has been overlooked.

Limitations

India did not reverse its actions, and its Supreme Court upheld them in 2023. Major powers and several Gulf states prioritised their economic ties with India, and some symbolic measures had little practical effect. Suspending trade also cut off some Pakistani industries’ access to Indian inputs.

Current reference: India’s Supreme Court upheld the revocation of Article 370 in December 2023. Elections to the Jammu and Kashmir assembly were held in late 2024 and Omar Abdullah became Chief Minister, but by September 2026 the territory’s statehood had still not been restored, and real power remained with New Delhi’s Lieutenant Governor.

Lessons

Pakistan’s Kashmir diplomacy is most effective when it is consistent, evidence-based and backed by a strong economy and internal stability.

Syllabus book: P.R. Chari, Pervaiz Iqbal Cheema and Stephen P. Cohen, Perception, Politics and Security in South Asia: The Compound Crisis of 1990 (2003), show how, in a nuclear South Asia, misperception between India and Pakistan can turn a local crisis into a nuclear danger that draws in outside powers.

Pakistan’s campaign after 5 August 2019

Diplomatic: downgraded ties, UNSC, UNGA, OIC
Legal: dossiers, demographic change
Symbolic: 5 Aug, Kashmir Hour, map, Srinagar Highway
Public diplomacy: media, diaspora, counter-disinformation

8. Conclusion

After 5 August 2019, Pakistan responded with a wide range of measures: downgrading diplomatic ties and suspending trade, taking Kashmir to the UN Security Council for the first time in decades, raising it at the General Assembly, the OIC and the Human Rights Council, documenting violations in dossiers, observing Youm-e-Istehsal and Kashmir Hour, issuing a new political map and mobilising the media and diaspora. These steps kept the plight of Kashmiris in the international spotlight, even though they could not undo India’s actions. The struggle now requires patient, consistent diplomacy until the Kashmiri people can exercise their right of self-determination.

Pakistan’s Measures After 5 August 2019: CSS 2021 Solved Answer