Mohammad Akbar makes his living by selling vegetables seeds on a pushcart near Hamam Wali Masjid in Muzaffarabad. He was born in
Tagao, in Jalalabad district of neighboring Afghanistan,
 |
| Akbar Khan beside his pushcart |
approximately in late 60’s.
In 1995, several years after migrating to Pakistan, he married to a cousin in a
refugee camp in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa’s (KP) Buner district and two years after
tying the nuptial knot, moved to the capital of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK)
with his spouse and an infant daughter.
In the ensuing years, his
family multiplied, following the birth of seven more children, one of whom
unfortunately got killed in the devastating 2005 earthquake at the age of 3
years. His eldest son is however now a student of first year in a private
college in Muzaffarabad.
The family lives in a tin-roof
shelter that a local resident has allowed them to raise on his land, without
any rent. Eighteen years on, they are contended, even though the breadwinner
hardly makes both ends meet.
In summer last year, he took
his family to his birthplace in Afghanistan, perhaps for the first time after
shifting to Muzaffarabad.
They stayed there for five
months but none of his family members, he says, showed an iota of interest to
permanently settle down in the warn-torn country.
“We are happy here. My
children have friends here and they mostly converse with each other in Urdu and
Pahari (rather than Pashto),” says the bearded man, implying their level of integration.
In December last year, when gunmen
massacred at least 141 students at an army run school in Peshawar, repatriation
of Afghans without proper identification papers began from across the country,
under a nationwide counter terrorism strategy.
According to Khuda Bakhsh
Awan, AJK's Inspector General of Police (IGP), some 11000 illegal Afghan
refugees were evicted from the region early this year in the wake of the worst
ever terror attack.
“They were the people, totally
unverified… Many of them moved out (of AJK) voluntarily,” he says.
Interestingly, Akbar survived
that eviction, notwithstanding the fact that all he possesses is an ‘identity
card’ issued in 1990 by a Quetta based Afghan militant organization –
Nida-e-Mujahideen.
“I have myself provided all
details to the local police station... Whenever, there is any operation against
the Afghans, officials come and ask questions, but never have I faced
any intimidation or harassment,” he says.
“If they don’t evict us, we
would love to settle down here for good.”
However IGP Awan says the AJK
government cannot take any decision on this issue in isolation.
“Still, some 5-6 thousand
Afghans possessing Permit of Residence (PoR) cards are living in AJK. They have
been given the deadline of December 31 by the federal government. If there is no
extension in the deadline, they too will have to leave,” he adds.
On October 5, Pakhtunkhwa
Milli Awami Party (PkMAP) organized a protest demonstration in Islamabad
against the alleged cancellation of 100,000 CNICs of the Pakhtuns and their
forced displacement from Punjab and AJK.
PkMAP chief Mahmood Khan
Achakzai alleged that Pakhtuns were being (mis)treated like that of Afghans.
On the following day, an
adjournment motion was also tabled in Balochistan Assembly on alleged expulsion
of Pakhtuns from AJK. The motion was converted into a resolution and adopted by
the house on October 12.
However, AJK authorities
reject allegations of discrimination against Pakhtuns in their territory.
“In fact, people from Khyber
Pakhtunkhwa have centuries old relations with the Kashmiris. They are connected
to each other by the bonds of friendship, kinship and trade,” says IGP Awan.
Ground realities substantiate
his views, as they show Pakhtuns not only successfully running profitable
businesses but also owning residential and commercial properties in AJK, some in contravention to the laws of the land.
Ishaq Khan is one of them. He
runs a cloth shop in Khan Market, off Madina Market, a commercial hub of
Muzaffarabad.
From 1960 onwards, his
grandfather Haji Noor Mohammad started visiting Muzaffarabad as a cloth seller.
According to him, his grandfather had migrated to Quetta in 1947 from Ghazni in
Afghanistan.
In 1979, Haji Noor Mohammad’s
sons and two other Pakhtuns, also claiming to be the Quetta residents, jointly
purchased a piece of evacuee property in Madina Market from an influential
allottee against Rs 700,000 - then considered to be a huge amount.
They razed a house on the
property and built shops thereon, naming it as Khan Market.
A lot of hue and cry was
raised by some Kashmiris against the deal, citing alleged violation of the
State Subject Law that governs the issues of citizenship and purchase of
property in both parts of the divided state of Jammu and Kashmir. The law was
introduced by the Hindu Dogra ruler of the erstwhile princely state in 1927.
According to the law, there
are three categories of State Subjects, known as class I, II and III.
Class I – “All persons born
and residing within the State before the commencement of the reign of Maharaja
Gulab Singh Sahib Bahadur, and also persons who settled the reign before the
commencement of samvat year 1942 (1885AD), and have since been permanently
residing therein.” Class II – “All persons other than those belonging to Class
I who settled within the State before the close of samvat year 1968 (1911AD),
and have since permanently resided and acquired immovable property therein.”
Class III – “All persons,
other than those belonging to Classes I and II permanently residing within the
State, who have acquired under a rayatnama any immovable property therein or
who may hereafter acquire such property under an ijazatnama and may execute a rayatnama
after ten years continuous residence therein.”
“My father Haji Jan Mohammad
obtained an ijazatnama and then rayatnama which qualified him for
class-III State Subject certificate,” claims Ishaq.
Like Haji Noor Mohammad’s
descendants, there are tens of hundreds of Pashto and Hindko speaking families
from KP who have purchased properties in AJK over the years bygone, amid
serious complaints and concerns that corrupt revenue department officials have
liberally exercised authority in favour of most of them.
Those who have obtained
permissions without providing requisite documents are now feeling the heat of
impending action against the illegal residents, officials say.
According to intelligence
sources, it were some of these people who misled and provoked Mr Achakzai into
hurling allegations against the AJK government.
These sources claim that some
Afghans with the help of corrupt officials of National Database and
Registration Authority (Nadra) obtained Pakistani CNICs which were detected
during scrutiny launched under the counter terrorism strategy.
“If the CNICs of some Pakhtuns
have been cancelled, it’s because either they simultaneously possessed Afghan
refugee cards or there were errors and omissions in the information they (had)
provided to Nadra,” one official source points out.
“There is no truth in reports
that the Pakhtuns are being discriminated in AJK… If there has been any action
against anyone, it’s not because of his cast, creed or ethnic background but
because of some offense that no government can overlook,” he adds.
Sources reveal that the
ijazatnama or rayatnama granted to such people are also being reviewed. So far
around two dozen such certificates have been cancelled in Muzaffarabad, Dadyal
and Mirpur, according to them.
These people have either
disposed off or will have to dispose off the properties they have raised here,
the sources say.
However, those Pakhtuns or
other Pakistanis who have duly fulfilled all requirements to permanently or
temporarily settle down in AJK are at ease.
Ahmed Shah Bukhari and his
five siblings represent that class.
Bukhari’s Pashto speaking
father shifted to Muzaffarabad more than 50 years ago from Abbottabad as a
cloth merchant. Today, all of his children are separately dealing in the same
commodity in different markets of Muzaffarabad. They have also obtained class
III State Subject status.
“We too were migrants (from
Abbottabad) … (But) for the last two decades I am being constantly chosen as an office-bearer of the traders’ association in Madina Market. Currently, I am also
heading the PML-N trade wing in district Muzaffarabad,” Bukhari, 58, says.
“I have not faced any
disrespectful behavior at the hands of officials or public… If anybody has
faced, it might be because of some guilt,” he adds.
However Abdul Majid Khan,
minister for rehabilitation in the present PPP government, slightly differs.
Not many people in Pakistan
know that his grandfather Khan Abdul Hameed Khan, the first elected prime
minister (1975-77) of AJK and previously also president and chief justice, was
real younger brother of Khan Abdul Qayyum Khan, KP’s first chief minister after
1947.
Majid Khan’s constituency -
one of the 12 housing the Pakistan based Kashmiri refugees - is spread over the
entire KP.
He claims that the Pakhtuns
from Miankhel tribe used to do trade with Kashmir valley and were given
citizenship rights by the Dogra ruler long before partition.
Many of them migrated from
Kashmir Valley in 1947 and settled mainly in KP and some parts of Punjab, he
adds, putting their current number to around 6000.
“They are among the people
whose CNICs have been cancelled. The authorities are neither treating them as
Pakistanis nor Kashmiris, but as Afghans which is unfair,” he says.
“Action against people
who are not Pakistani or genuine Kashmiri citizens is fine, but good eggs
should not be wasted for the sake of a few bad ones,” Khan stresses.
Meanwhile, as the December 31
deadline for the eviction of Afghans approaches, the AJK government has been
asked by the States and Frontier (SAFRON) Division to wait for a final decision
of the federal government in this regard.
Referring to the same direction,
Pathan Welfare Association has made an appeal to the AJK government not to be
too hasty in expelling well-settled and integrated Afghans.
In the light of the SAFRON Division communique,
the AJK government has asked all administrative officers to wait for the next
policy decision by Islamabad.
Nevertheless, officials says,
there is no reason to halt implementation of a settled policy whereby all Afghan refugees are required to live in the same district for which they have been issued the PoR by Nadra.
“Let’s hope this issue is not negatively
exploited by anyone, whether living here or elsewhere,” they say.
……..Tariq Naqash
