ISLAMABAD – The Foreign Office has denied reports claiming that Pakistan has cancelled the Simla Agreement with India.
Officials clarified that no formal decision has been taken to revoke any bilateral treaty with India. The FO confirmed that no official move has been made to terminate the agreement.
This clarification follows Defence Minister Khawaja Asif’s Thursday statement, in which he claimed Pakistan had withdrawn from the Simla Agreement and declared the Line of Control (LoC) would now be recognized as a ceasefire line, reverting to Pakistan’s 1948 position.
Speaking to a private news channel, Asif highlighted that the Simla Accord was strictly bilateral, with no involvement from any third party or the World Bank. He added that its termination reinstates the LoC’s original status.
The Simla Agreement, signed after the 1971 war, laid the foundation for managing bilateral relations between Pakistan and India, including mutual respect for the ceasefire line in Jammu and Kashmir.
Asif’s comments came after India unilaterally pulled out of the Indus Waters Treaty (IWT) and launched unprovoked attacks inside Pakistan last month, raising tensions and triggering military engagements between the two nuclear-armed neighbors.