Haider stays away from Organising Committee maiden meeting; claims Nawaz asked him to supervise its task

 The recently constituted ‘organising committee’ of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) chapter of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) held its maiden meeting on Monday in Islamabad but instead of making it to the get-together, party’s disgruntled former regional president Raja Farooq Haider preferred to be greeted by hundreds of his supporters at Kohala enroute to Muzaffarabad.

The 15-member organising committee, with former secretary general Shah Ghulam Qadir as its head, was constituted by PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif on Dec 10 after dissolving AJK chapter’s entire organisational setup, including overseas bodies.

Haider was among the remaining members who included Chaudhry Tariq Farooq, Chaudhry Muhammad Saeed, Raja Naseer Ahmed Khan, Mushtaq Minhas, Chaudhry Muhammad Aziz, Dr Najeeb Naqi, Ms Noreen Arif, Barrister Iftikhar Ali Gillani, Dr Mustafa Bashir, Raja Muhammad Siddique, Syed Shaukat Shah, Sardar Abdul Khaliq Wasi and Zulfiqar Ali Malik. 

The Monday’s meet at the Bani Gala residence of Qadir was attended by all of them, except Haider who had returned from a long USA and UK tour on Dec 16.

Instead, he drove from Islamabad to Muzaffarabad and was received by a large number of his supporters at Kohala Bridge. However, while speaking to them, he did not make any direct reference to the committee's meeting but did make a claim that Nawaz Sharif had asked him to "stay in the committee and supervise the task assigned to it.”  

On the other hand, Qadir said he did not know as to why Haider had not turned up at the meeting, even though he had fixed Dec 20 in keeping with his and another committee member's travel dates.

He informed that the meeting held in in very cordial atmosphere had renewed allegiance to the narrative of Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif apart from reposing full faith in their leadership.

According to him,  it had been resolved that membership drive and reorganisation from the ward to polling station level followed by the union councils and constituencies would be simultaneously initiated within a week.

Apart from that, he said,  it had also been decided to ascertain names of party activists who had violated party discipline during the recent general elections for disciplinary action against them. Recommendations would be sent to the central secretariat for revocation of the basic membership of those who had contested elections against party candidates, he added.

Qadir said the meeting had taken strong exception to the PTI government’s “vindictive actions” in AJK and all workers had been asked to submit details/proof in this regard.

He said the meeting had also strongly condemned “non-inclusion of Kashmir issue in the agenda of OIC foreign ministers’ conference in Islamabad” as well as the lack of any “substantial move” by Imran Khan in support of suffering Kashmiris after India’s Aug 5, 2019 move.

In his speech at Kohala, Haider claimed that he had declined to be part of the organising committee during his last meeting with Nawaz Sharif in London but he did not agree.

“Mian sahib asked me if I acknowledge him as 'head' and I responded you are not only the head but our leader. On this, he stressed that I [Haider] have to be part of the committee and supervise the task of reorganisation,” he claimed. 

He urged PML-N workers, particularly those active on social media, to not to issue any confrontational statements and instead maintain unity in their ranks.

 Tariq Naqash

 

PML-N president dissolves party's AJK chapter; forms committe for reorganisation

In a widely anticipated move, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) president Shahbaz Sharif on Friday dissolved party’s entire organisation in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), forming a 15-member organising committee for reorganisation and fresh election of office bearers within two months.

According to a notification issued by party’s central secretary general Ahsan Iqbal, the organising committee is headed by Shah Ghulam Qadir, the former regional secretary general, and includes former regional president Raja Farooq Haider as one of the 14 members.  

The remaining members include Chaudhry Tariq Farooq from Bhimber, Chaudhry Muhammad Saeed from Mirpur, Raja Naseer Ahmed Khan and Zulfiqar Ali Malik from Kotli, Raja Mushtaq Minhas from Bagh, Chaudhry Muhammad Aziz from Haveli, Sardar Abdul Khaliq Wasi from Poonch, Dr Najeeb Naqi from Sudhnoti, Ms Noreen Arif and Barrister Iftikhar Ali Gillani from Muzaffarabad, Dr Mustafa Bashir from Jhelum Valley, Raja Muhammad Siddique and Syed Shaukat Shah from Kashmiri refugees based in Pakistan.

Except for Mr Malik and Mr Wasi, the rest were part of the cabinet in the previous PML-N government. Of these 15 members, only Mr Qadir and Mr Haider have returned in the July 2021 elections from Neelum and Jhelum valleys, respectively.

Interestingly, despite being the regional chapters of the national parties, both the PML-N and PPP AJK have their separate organisational bodies in the Kashmiri refugees’ constituencies in Pakistan as well as in Europe, UK, North America and Gulf countries.

The PML-N notification declared that all wings of the party as well as its organisational set-up in Pakistan and overseas would also stand dissolved.

Setting the terms of reference, it stated that the reorganisation and election for new office bearers would be held on the basis of divisions, districts, electoral constituencies, union councils, wards and polling stations in consultation with the members of the organising committee within two months.

The committee would keep the party president and secretary general informed about progress of reorganisation work on a regular basis, it added.

The PML-N was launched in AJK in December 2010, with Mr Haider and Mr Qadir its chief organiser and secretary organising committee, respectively. At the first convention in Mirpur in April 2012, Mr Haider, Mr Farooq and Mr Qadir were elected unopposed as president, senior vice president and secretary general, respectively.

However, afterwards the party could not hold a second convention, notwithstanding muffled voices for the same during its government in AJK from 2016 to 2021.

The differences in the PML-N AJK chapter came into the open late last month after Mr Qadir, Mr [Tariq] Farooq and Mr Minhas overturned the nominations of some United States-based PML-N workers for overseas party offices by Mr Haider during his private USA tour, saying that the move was not only "in contravention of a consensus on re-organisation but had also caused irreparable damage to the party’s goodwill.”

According to PML-N sources, at a meeting held in Kashmir House on July 31 last year, it was unanimously decided that all organisations and wings of PML-N AJK, including those in the 12 constituencies in Pakistan and abroad, would be dissolved to pave the way for fresh [party] elections and that the new bodies would be constituted at constituency, polling station/ward, union council, district and division level within two months.

The meeting was chaired by Mr Haider and other participants included Mr Farooq, Mr Minhas, Mr Naqim, Mr Aziz, Mr Wasi and Mr Malik.

Decisions of the meeting were conveyed to both Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif on the party's letterhead with signatures of all seven participants.

Before the controversy over nominations became public, Mr Haider and Mr Farooq had also separately called on Nawaz Sharif in London where the latter had reportedly asked them in detail about the reasons that had led to the party's vanquishment in AJK polls.

When contacted, Mr Qadir maintained that the reorganisation and fresh election of office bearers was a unanimous demand of all party workers that had been met by the central leadership.

“We will accomplish this task within the stipulated period by taking every worker on board,” he vowed.

Meanwhile, Friday’s decision had also triggered a volley of comments on different social media platforms between the supporters and opponents of the dissolution of the party's organisation, mainly the “demotion” of Mr Haider.  

However, according to a brief statement by his spokesperson, Mr Haider had urged all party workers to avoid “confrontational comments and maintain unity in their ranks.”

The spokesperson said Mr Haider would give a detailed response after his return from the UK on Dec 16.

Tariq Naqash

Aged leopard dies of injuries in 'territorial fight'

An aged common leopard died late last night while it was being transported to the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) capital from a mountainous suburban area for treatment of multiple injuries it had presumably suffered in territorial fight with other wild animal, an official said on Wednesday.

On Tuesday evening, the AJK wildlife and fisheries department dispatched a team to Riyali village, located some 35 kilometres towards northwest of here along the famous Machiara National Park, after the concerned village conservation committee members reported that a leopard, zoologically known as Panthera Pardus, was walking through a mountain stream with difficulty, which suggested it had suffered some serious wounds in its hind legs.

According to Syeda Shaista, a wildlife monitoring officer based in Muzaffarabad, the villagers had earlier tried on their own to rescue the wild cat but in vain.

The five-member team somehow managed to bundle the injured big cat into the back of pick-up for transportation to Muzaffarabad, but it expired shortly after the team had reached Patikka, a town along the main Neelum valley road, after covering around 20 kilometre journey through the precipitous link road, she told this scribe.

Ms Shaista said that the autopsy of the carnivore was performed by the AJK animal husbandry department veterinarians on Wednesday, during which they observed that it had suffered multiple injuries in the mouth region and hind legs due to the biting by other wild animals.

The report further stated that the animal’s backbone, vertebral column and bones of hind legs had also been severely fractured, which had caused its death, she added.

“It seems this aged leopard had gotten into a territorial fight with another leopard. And while being driven out, it fell from some height and suffered multiple fractures that led to its death.” Ms Shaista said.

She told that the hide of the dead animal would be flayed for stuffing.

The authoritative Red List of ‘Threatened Species’ compiled by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) classifies Panthera Pardus as “near threatened” species.

In Pakistan, this species is found in almost the entire mountainous range of AJK, adjoining Murree hills and parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The AJK wildlife department claims that indirect evidence has shown that the population of leopards has increased in their area over the past decade.

With increased population and shrinking natural habitat and natural prey, the fight between the wild animals over space and food was occurring frequently, Ms Shaista said, adding, it was also why some of these animals occasionally descended on human populations.

Tariq Naqash

AJK CEC directs RO Dadyal to resubmit fresh inquiry report into handout by Gandapur

 The Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) retired Justice Abdul Rashid Sulehria on Tuesday rejected an inquiry report by the returning officer (RO) of LA-1, Mirpur-I on the issue of grant of cash by federal minister Ali Ameen Gandapur to a PTI activist at an election related event in Dadyal and ordered him to resubmit a fresh inquiry after identifying the culpable as well as the beneficiary in the matter.

Without taking any name, he also declared that proper proceedings should be initiated against the minister in the police station [concerned] and confiscated money be made its part as an evidence.

On July 4, Mr Gandapur had attended an event in Ganhair village on the outskirts of Dadyal where he had given some cash to one Chaudhry Rasib, a local PTI activist, for repair, for the time being, of some badly damaged portions of a link road in the presence of PTI candidate Chaudhry Azhar Sadiq.

After the video clip of the happening went viral on social media, ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) lodged a complaint with RO Raja Shamraiz for action against both Sadiq and Gandapur.

In response to a show cause notice served by the RO, both Sadiq and Rasib appeared before him on two consecutive days on Thursday and Friday last to record their statements wherein they pleaded not guilty.

Rasib informed the RO that the federal minister was known to him for a long time and had visited Ganhair on his request because he wanted his help for repair of the rundown link road.

Continuing, he had informed the RO that the minister had given him just Rs 390,000 from his pocket and not Rs 500,000 as claimed by many on social media and that Sadiq had nothing to do with it.

The RO had confiscated the amount in favour of the government and submitted a detailed report to the EC.

Speaking to this scribe on Friday evening, the RO had maintained that since the complainant from the PML-N could not establish involvement of Mr Sadiq in this affair, he had given him a warning to ensure observance of the code of conduct in future.

However, in an official communication addressed to the commission’s secretary Sardar Ghazanfar, the CEC not only found faults with the RO’s report but also rejected it outright.

“After the footage came to fore, I had directed SSP Mirpur and RO Dadyal to submit their report in this matter. However, the RO did not record any statement of candidate Azhar Sadiq in this regard, notwithstanding its urgency,” said the CEC.

Instead, the RO summoned the ‘concerned person’ [a reference to Rasib], recorded his statement and recovered the amount and submitted report to the commission, a perusal of which suggests that the RO did not blame anyone for this monetary dealing, the CEC said in the communication in Urdu language. 

“For that reason, no action against any person can be initiated unless there is clear sureness [about the matter],” he added.

He was of the view that the RO should have recorded the statement of the police officer who was also present on the occasion. Furthermore, he questioned, since the minister had “doled out money in a public meeting in favour of a particular candidate, how could his [the candidate’s] involvement be ruled out?”

The CEC held that it was proven beyond doubt that the minister had given money in what amounted to “bribe” and subsequently crime.

“The RO was duty bound to determine as to who is the culpable and who is the beneficiary,” he said, adding an FIR against the minister concerned was essential because the amount given on that occasion had also been recovered.

The CEC also took exception to the police official, seen in the video clip, saying it was his responsibility as well to register the FIR and instantly inform the office about the proceedings.  

“The seizure of the amount distributed openly in a public meeting was also obligatory. This incident cannot be dealt with summarily; there should have been proper investigation in favour or in opposition of the person concerned,” the CEC held.

While rejecting the report, he directed the RO to hold investigations to identify the actual culpable as well as the person who wanted to benefit from this money.

“Whatever action is permissible under law should be taken in the matter,” he directed.

On Tuesday, Gandapur and his colleague Murad Saeed were in remote Haveli district to campaign for PTI candidate Amir Nazir Choudhary.

Despite attempts, this correspondent could not reach him for comments on this issue.

Tariq Naqash

Bilawal blasts PMLN for 'giving space to Imran'

Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto Zardari on Wednesday blatantly criticised former ally Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) with a volley of blunt comments tinged with sarcasm at an election rally in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) but did not take its name directly even once in his entire speech.

Speaking to a huge emotionally charged crowd of PPP supporters in the town of Abbaspur, Mr Bhutto-Zardari also reiterated his diatribe against Prime Minister Imran Khan but for the first time persistently upbraided the PML-N for what he alleged giving space to the Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) governments in the centre and Punjab.

The PPP chairman also took strong exception to those who, according to him, claimed on TV screens that the PPP had finished or was restricted to just one province and asked them to “open their eyes and look at the crowd in the mountains of Abbaspur.”

“This is just a trailer; the PPP has now set off its journey. It was thriving yesterday, it is thriving today and in the days to come you will see only PPP,” he said at the outset of his speech.

Highlighting the importance of AJK polls, he exhorted the masses to send a message on both sides of the divide with the power of their vote that the “sell-out of Kashmir is unacceptable.”

“When we say the sell-out of Kashmir is unacceptable, it also means whatever is happening in occupied Kashmir is unbearable to us.”

“When we say we don’t pray for Modi’s success in elections and don’t invite him at our weddings, we give a message that we stand shoulder to shoulder with the Kashmiri Muslims and we are ready to confront Modi boldly.”

Repeating his allegation that PM Khan had disappointed the nation with his reaction to India’s moves on occupied Kashmir, he asserted that together with the AJK people, his party would not allow anyone to think about a “compromise on Kashmir.”

“The whole world knows that the Kashmiris have been struggling for over 70 years and have not accepted dictations and coercions. They will decide their destiny by themselves and both Islamabad and Delhi will have to accept it.”

Drawing attention to economic situation in Pakistan, he said people were under an obligation to save AJK from the “incompetent and puppet regime” in Islamabad which had “plunged the nation in historic poverty, unemployment and dearness in the name of so-called change.”

“What kind of politics and economic policy is it which has rendered the people already possessing homes and doing jobs homeless and jobless?”

Asking people to recognize the “hypocrite telling lies and taking u-turns while giving relief to the rich and inflicting pain on the poor,” he announced that the PPP would increase the salaries and pensions after forming the government in AJK.

“You will have to make a decision that whether you want a selected and incompetent government and a puppet prime minister in Azad Kashmir? If not, you will have to throw your weight behind the PPP.”

With this preamble, Mr Bhutto-Zardari asserted that the PPP was fighting and giving a tough time to the “selected system and puppet ruler” in the centre from the day one.

Though without naming anyone but clearly referring to the PML-N, he said the PPP had reached out to all of its [previous] opponents while forgetting the bitterness of the past.

“We even went to the prison to meet our political opponent because we believed that in order to get rid of the selected ruler the whole of Pakistan will have to unite… While in jail, we made him an ideologue. We also met his whole family with full respect and honour which is essential for politics,” he said, alluding to PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif.

He said he should have listened to his workers who kept on prohibiting him [from entering in an alliance with the PML-N].

“We came to know they do not have any interest in dislodging Imran Khan. Rather they wanted this puppet and Buzdar to continue, without bothering about the miseries that this regime has gifted to the masses.”

He however vowed that the PPP would go ahead with its mission to dislodge both with the help of its workers.

In a sarcastic tone, he remarked that contrary to their avowals, they (PML-N) had landed in submissiveness.

“Now they say whoever's feet they have to grovel at to become the prime minister, they will do this. The ideological journey of 'aar paar' has culminated into the politics of grovelling  at the feet," he said.

 "But only you can resort to such submissiveness, not the jiyalas who have gone to the gallows, have served jail terms and have borne lashes,” he added, vowing that the PPP would fight back boldly without striking a deal on the rights of the people.

“We will send both Buzdar and Imran packing to rid the people of Pakistan of them.”

He said PPP had competed with PM Khan on all fronts despite knowing which forces were backing him and added that with the support of the masses the PPP would defeat him as well as all other undemocratic forces.

Again alluding to the PML-N, he said: “Our friends wanted to leave the field open for Mr Khan in by-elections and it was PPP’s courage, decision and thought that we should not boycott but contest. When my workers made this decision, they  too felt emboldened to take part in by-elections.”

Referring to the Karachi by-election won by the PPP, he said the friends in opposition should have distributed sweets out of jubilation but instead they quarreled with us.

“We will not give space to Imran Khan even by an inch; neither will we fall into anybody’s feet nor will we boycott any election and Imran Khan will continue to face defeats in future exactly the way the PPP had defeated him in Senate election,” he said, in a reference to Yousuf Raza Gillani’s election.

Mr Bhutto-Zardari also took exception to the absence of PML-N and JUI-F lawmakers from the budget session, and expressed the hope that Shehbaz Sharif and Maulana Fazlur Rehman would serve show cause notices on their parliamentarians who had abstained.

He claimed that people would support those who had braved Imran Khan despite odds and not those who had “ditched the opposition.”

In yet another sarcastic comment, he said: “We do politics of alliance for the sake of the people. But if you want an alliance to consume nihari and halwa we won’t be part of it.”

 He offered that if the PPP’s stand that Punjab chief minister should be ousted through a vote of no confidence followed by ouster of the prime minister in a similar manner was acknowledged, the PPP members would offer themselves for the purpose.

“I assure them that we will work for you. You just vote and we will topple them the way we had done in the past.”

Disputing PM Khan’s claim about denial of air bases to the US, he claimed this decision was taken by the PPP government through the Parliament and warned that no u-turn on it would be allowed.

"When the government comes into existence with the power of people’s votes, it can confront face to face not only India but also the US."

He appreciated the National Security Committee as a good beginning and said the PPP would take every decision through the Parliament unlike the present government that took decisions in the dead of night.

He assured that the PPP would protect the interests of the Kashmiris on both sides of the divide and expressed the hope that voters in AJK would install its government with a two thirds majority.

“Allah willing, after you elect the PM from PPP we will march towards Bani Gala and Islamabad and drive away puppets from there as well.”

Earlier former AJK Presidenr Sardar Yaqoob Khan who is contesting elections from two constituencies of Poonch, Sardar Amjad Yousaf and others also spoke.

Tariq Naqash 

Bilawal asks Kashmiris to elect his party with thumping majority

Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) chairman Bilawal Bhutto-Zardari on Friday asked the Kashmiris to hold the “selected puppet” government of Prime Minister Imran Khan accountable for the “sell-out of Kashmir” and return his party with a thumping majority in the upcoming elections to the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Legislative Assembly.  

Speaking at two different events in Mirpur district in the first leg of his three-day tour to AJK to kick-start his party’s election campaign, he went on to allege that PM Khan’s government was also contemplating selling out the country's nuclear programme.

Mr Bhutto-Zardari who was accompanied by senior PPP leader Qamar Zaman Kaira started his tour from Dhan Galli village at the border of Punjab and AJK where he was received by party’s regional president Chaudhry Latif Akbar, leader of the opposition in AJK assembly Chaudhry Muhammad Yasin and scores of other PPP leaders and activists. 

From Dhaan Galli his rally arrived at Dadyal where he addressed a big gathering to canvass for Chaudhry Afsar Shahid, PPP’s candidate from LA-1, Mirpur-I. En-route the neighbouring Kotli district, Mr Bhutto-Zardari addressed another gathering at Plaak village in LA-2, Mirpur-II from where Chaudhry Qasim Majeed, son of former AJK premier Chaudhry Abdul Majeed, has been given party ticket.

Mr Bhutto-Zardari maintained that each AJK visit filled him with joy “because there was not just a political bondage between the PPP and the people of Kashmir but also a historical bondage."

“We are with each other for three generations and will remain so for [many more] generations,” he said.   

He claimed that Kashmiris had written history by siding with Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Shaheed Benazir Bhutto. Continuing, he said, when they sided with President Asif Ali Zardari, they had historical development in AJK.

“Now the youth in Azad Kashmir and occupied Kashmir are going to begin a new journey,” he said and added: “If in occupied Kashmir they are doing jihad against Modi, Hindutva and barbarity of the RSS; here […] in AJK the youth as well as the elderly are doing a jihad against dearness and unemployment by Imran Khan.” 

“If they are facing the bullets and blasts by Modi here you are experiencing costliness; you cannot buy medicines and get treated, you cannot find jobs for yourselves. You too are launching your jihad and struggle against this cruel puppet government.”

Referring to two famous quotes of his grandfather and mother about Kashmir and Kashmiris, he regretted that in response to Modi government’s Aug 5, 2019 move, Prime Minister Imran Khan had expressed helplessness by saying what could he do. 

“He [PM Khan] did not have even an answer to this historic cruelty, villainy and injustice by Modi.” 

Mr Bhutto-Zardari said while Zulfikar Ali Bhutto had vowed to fight for 1000 years for Kashmir, PM Khan announced to hold protest demonstrations along the roads on each Friday. 

“However, he could not make people stand for you even for one week. When Zulfikar Ali would give a strike call, not just AJK the whole of occupied Kashmir would shut down. But what Imran Khan did was just to rename Kashmir Highway as Srinagar Highway.” 

The PPP chairman asked the gathering to hold “the most incompetent prime minister” accountable and answerable for the injustice he had done to AJK, for the dearness and the unemployment as well as what he had done with regard to occupied Kashmir.

 “You have to make it loud and clear to the world that whatever this puppet says, we will never compromise the rights of Kashmiris like that of Imran Khan.” 

Speaking of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto, he said the persons who respectively gave the gift of nuclear and missile technologies to the nation were declared as ‘security risk.’

“But this puppet has not only sold out Kashmir, he is now also out to sell out the nuclear programme… The people of [Azad] Kashmir will reject this puppet in elections and declare him as a security risk,” he said. 

He asked people to support him the way they had supported Zulfikar Ali Bhutto and Benazir Bhutto and drive out PTI from AJK to pave the way for PPP's victory  with a thumping majority.

“First we will elect our prime minister in Azad Kashmir and then we will elect a prime minister in Pakistan – a prime minister who will not sell out Kashmir and who will resolve all of your issues,” he said. 

Later the PPP chairman drove to Kotli district where he offered condolences to the family of party’s stalwart Muhammad Matloob Inqilabi in Dhanna village in LA 13, Kotli-VI. Mr Inqilabi had died in November last year due to a head injury and PPP has fielded his son Waleed Inqilabi from this constituency. 

Mr Bhutto-Zardari is scheduled to address a big public meeting in Kotli city on Saturday. 

Tariq Naqash

'India's APC on Kashmir a ploy to deflect world attention from the real issue'

As Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi hosts an ‘all party conference’ of pro-India Kashmiri leaders in New Delhi on Thursday, the two top public office holders in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) have termed the event nothing more than a ploy to hoodwink the international community on Kashmir and deflect its attention from the war crimes perpetrated by the occupation forces with impunity particularly after Aug 5, 2019. 

In their separate reactions, President Sardar Masood Khan and Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider declared in unequivocal terms that the invitees of the conference did not represent the Kashmiri nation and instead they had always compromised the fundamental rights, mainly the right to freedom, of Kashmiris for their lust for power. 

“Farooq Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti belong to the families which have been shamelessly making compromises on the rights of the people of Jammu and Kashmir apart from very proudly shouting the slogans of Jay Hind and Banday Matram,” maintained AJK President Khan in a statement. 

“Those speaking on behalf of the Kashmiris at the so-called conference will be labeled as treacherous fifth columnists,” he added. 

Khan noted that had Modi had been sincere in the consultative process on Kashmir he would have invited incarcerated Hurriyat leaders to take part in it. 

In fact, people like Farooq Abdullah and Mehbooba Mufti had played the role of facilitators in consolidating India’s illegal occupation due to their lust of power and could never plead the case of Kashmir at any forum as per the wishes of the Kashmiri people, he said. 

About speculations that the Indian prime minister intended to restore the pre-Aug 5, 2019 status of occupied Kashmir, the AJK president pointed out that Articles 370 and 35-A of Indian Constitution were an arrangement between the two states which had been sabotaged by India.

“And now when occupied Kashmir has been virtually made an administrative unit of the Union of India, what will be the legitimacy of any agreement, if concluded,” he questioned.

 Khan cautioned Pakistan and the people of Jammu and Kashmir to stay away from India’s cleverly orchestrated tactics. 

“Any political or diplomatic process should be based on sincerity and through the mediation of a third party. In our opinion, the United Nations can be a better mediator for this process,” he said. 

In a brief statement, Prime Minister Haider said the invitees of the conference were India’s collaborators throughout the occupation and its partners in crime. 

“Over and over again, they have been humiliated and disgraced, used like tissue papers and made poodles of the oppressive regime in New Delhi; nevertheless they have always made themselves available for India's interests without an iota of shame,” he said of the pro-India Kashmiri leaders. 

Haider said the all-party conference was a devious stratagem of the fascist Modi government to divert international attention from the real issue but it would fail to achieve the preconceived results, mainly because occupied Kashmir was not under the sway of pro-India leadership, particularly after 1989. 

He expressed the hope that Islamabad would shortly invite all notable Kashmiri leaders, including those representing the All Parties Hurriyat Conference on this side of the divide, to make it clear to the world community that the genuine representatives of the masses were pro-freedom Kashmiri leaders and not those who had supported India's unlawful occupation of Jammu and Kashmir. 

"The world must know that no cosmetic measures on Kashmir will help India or Pakistan witness any durable positive development... Until and unless this [Kashmir] issue is resolved in accordance with the wishes of Kashmiri people, fears of a devastating nuclear war will continue to grip this region."

Tariq Naqash

 

 

PPP chides PML-N, PTI for their 'abysmal performance'

The Azad Jammu and Kashmir chapter of Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) has censured Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) and Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) governments in Islamabad and Muzaffarabad, respectively, for their “utter failure to come up to the expectations 

"Unfortunately, both Prime Minister Imran Khan and Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider miserably failed to play the role that the freedom seeking Kashmiris had expected from them in the wake of India’s Aug 5, 2019 move… I am afraid they will play a dangerous game with regard to the Kashmir issue,” alleged PPP regional president Chaudhry Latif Akbar at a crowded press conference at his residence on Wednesday.  

He was flanked by Sardar Mubarak Haider and Shaukat Javed Mir, party’s candidates respectively from Muzaffarabad city and Leepa valley. 

According to Akbar, both governments had full realization that they could not win the upcoming AJK polls which was why they had been doling out public money to get the desired results.

"In 2016, the PML-N contested elections on the basis of tribes and deep pockets using funds of the AJK Council and in 2021 it’s giving schemes worth Rs 25 million in each constituency through the local government department,” he alleged.

After the announcement of the election schedule, such acts amount to a serious breach of the code of conduct and are thus unlawful, he said.  

Following in the PML-N’s footsteps, Akbar alleged, the PTI government had also been contemplating spending around Rs 5 billion in AJK in its desperate efforts to win the forthcoming polls.

"Instead of conquering AJK, the PTI government should thwart India’s nefarious designs to further divide the occupied territory." 

 Akbar asserted that since the people had endured “abysmal performance of the incompetent PML-N and PTI governments" in AJK and Pakistan, nothing was going to go in their favour in the polls.

“In fact it's the PPP that will celebrate victory on July 25,” he vowed.

Akbar who could not return in the 2016 polls, admitted that the performance of the parliamentary opposition, of which the PPP was a major component, was not up to the mark over the past five years.

 “Whether it was to highlight the issues of public interest or to take the [PML-N] government to task for unchecked favoritism and other corrupt practices, they did not fulfill their responsibilities to the satisfaction of the masses,” he said of the combined opposition in the assembly.  

He made it clear that the PPP would not be part of any electoral alliance.

"We will shortly unveil our election manifesto that lays main emphasis among other things on success of the heroic struggle across the divide as well as improvement of service delivery in health, education and other sectors," he told a questioner. 

Finding faults with the AJK Election Commission, he asked the constitutional body to take all contesting parties on board with regard to the polling schemes. 

The commission should also withdraw its order to the National Database and Registration Authority (Nadra) “to stop issuing new identity cards to eligible persons, he said.  

Akbar said army personnel should be deployed outside polling stations to maintain law and order but should have no concern with the proceedings inside the stations. 

Of an all-party conference to be hosted by Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi on Thursday, the PPP leader said that pro India leaders had no right to represent IIOJK because the true representative of the occupied territory was the APHC.

Tariq Naqash

Row over withholding tax ratio: AJK LA prorogues session without presentation of 2021-22 budget

The Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Legislative Assembly session convened on Wednesday for the presentation of 2021-22 budget was prorogued by the chair sine die without going by its agenda as a mark of protest against a bar in the federal budget on the rate of withholding tax for the independent power producers (IPPs) located in the AJK territory. 

The session was scheduled to commence at about 11am and weighty budget books had also been placed on the desks of lawmakers. However, it started at about 3pm due to an unusually long cabinet meeting on this issue. 

Earlier, after the first long sitting of the cabinet at Block 4 of the civil secretariat, Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider and his ministers held another round of discussions at the PM House before finally making it to the assembly building. 

The assembly session was attended by just 16 legislators, excluding the speaker, and only one of them was from the opposition.

In what appeared to be an already agreed strategy, Speaker Shah Ghulam Qadir gave the floor to the prime minister before letting finance minister Dr Najeeb Naqi to deliver his budget speech. 

Voicing serious concerns and reservations about some steps by the PTI led central government, PM Haider informed the house that there had been an ‘un-written understanding’ between the governments of AJK and Pakistan that all taxes imposed in Pakistan would be replicated in AJK, after a formal approval from the AJK assembly. 

However, he added, an “anomaly” had been observed in the federal budget wherein the withholding tax on value of offshore supply contract of the IPPs located wholly or partially in the AJK territory had been fixed at 1% as against 1.4% in Pakistan. 

He wondered how the central government could isolate AJK or take a decision that did not fall in its competence. 

“Already our financial resources are scant and such a decision whereby they intend to cap the ratio of taxes to be collected by us will further multiply our fiscal needs,” he said, making it clear that the 1% cap was unacceptable to the AJK government. 

He also regretted that the auction of additional spectrum in AJK had been once again put off till next year, in what was also a blow to the territory's economy. 

Haider said AJK had regained its financial and administrative powers after a long and tiring struggle through an amendment in the Constitution. 

“I know they want to enforce a new constitutional arrangement in Azad Kashmir for which they are out to obtain a two thirds majority in the upcoming polls. We also know that meetings [to this effect] are held in the office of the Prime Minister of Pakistan and chaired by Prime Minister Imran Khan,” he alleged. 

Haider went on to say that there were reports that the government of Pakistan planned to dole out Rs 50 million to each PTI candidate for development and warned against “breaking the legs of the people visiting AJK for this purpose.” 

He said he had also made it clear to a federal minister that the central government could not directly spend any amount of money in AJK. 

Between the lines, Haider also took umbrage at the AJK Election Commission (EC), which had declared last week that the [AJK] prime minister and ministers could not take part in election campaigns in official vehicles and had also recently stopped the tendering process of different schemes.

“Let it be clear that there is no concept of interim government in Azad Kashmir. The institution which has to conduct free and fair elections has been invested with these powers by this very house,” he said of the EC and added: “Neither can any institution be superior to the government nor can any institution take over the powers of the government.” 

 Sending a “loud and clear” message to the civil bureaucracy and all other AJK institutions that the AJK government would not let it happen, he said: “We do not want confrontation but at the same time we will not allow maneuverings to mar transparency and impartiality of elections. Our tolerance should not be misconstrued as our weakness.”  

Otherwise, he warned, he might be compelled to utter such a thing that could be exploited by the enemy [India].

Asking all political parties not to compromise the integrity and prestige of AJK, he said he would welcome the government which would come to power through the power of vote.

But no party would be able to scale up the ladder to power with clutches of the central government, he added. 

Haider claimed that as prime minister of Pakistan Mian Nawaz Sharif had not held any meeting on AJK polls in his office or even his private residences. 

Contrarily, he alleged, PM Khan had held two meetings on AJK polls, "directing people and institutions under him that he wanted to see the PTI government in AJK at all costs." 

“While you advocate the right to self determination of the Kashmiris, you are not ready to give us the limited right of five years here… If you do this, what will be the difference between you and those across the divide,” he said in a reference to Indian leaders. 

The AJK premier also made it clear that AJK would not become a province. 

“Yes it will become a province when the entire state of Jammu and Kashmir will decide so through vote.”

Wrapping up his speech, he asked the chair to adjourn the session sine die until a decision on the finance bill was made. 

Though opposition MLA Malick Nawaz mildly opposed the idea but after reiteration by the prime minister of his arguments, he did not press for his demand. 

After seeking opinion from law minister Farooq Ahmed Tahir, the chair read the presidential order regarding sine die prorogation of the session.

Tariq Naqash

The Miseries of Divide

   

With abundant water in its channel and varied alpine and subalpine trees on both sides, a drive through an appreciably improved artery along the icy Neelum River zigzagging through the picturesque Neelum valley is a real feast in these times when the downstream areas are witnessing hot and humid weather. 

This is what one can see during the drive with naked eyes. The hidden attraction, particularly for the conservationists, is the valley's rich flora and fauna, or the wildlife, and how they survive amid multiple threats, such as ceasefire violations along the Line of Control (LoC), a barbed fence restricting their free movement as well as poaching. 

Beyond Lawat lies Dawarian village, at a distance of 106 kilometres from Muzaffarabad. This village may have been earlier famous for its cherries and the gateway to a famous shrine in Jhaag Sharif, but for about a year or so it has gained fame for being home to two orphaned black bear cubs being kept at a trout fish hatchery there. 

Incidentally, this past weekend, I was able to make it to Dawarian. An under construction link road stemming from the main artery runs past the fenced compound housing the hatchery, hardly 500 metres ahead. I enter the compound only to be greeted by the cheerful staff of the AJK wildlife and fisheries department, both in civvies and uniform, engaged with the cubs. 

Muhammad Ashraf Raza, one of the assistant game wardens in the area, points to the lofty mountains across the Neelum River - which is overlooked by his office - and tells me the cubs were brought from the highest of these peaks in the closest proximity of the heavily militarized LoC on April 30 last year after being spotted by some nomads in their flock.  

According to the IUCN Red Book, Asiatic black bear falls in the category of ‘threatened species’ as poachers kill it for its fat, gallbladder, bile and genital organs and hide. The mother-bear never leaves its cubs alone even for a short while. Sighting of the newborns without mother along the LoC meant the she-bear had fallen prey to some landmine or shelling across the divide, marked by a 12 feet high electric fence, explains Raza.  

“We started to raise them like members of our family and one of our senior officers named the duo as Sharda (female) and Narda (male) after two famous peaks of the area," he tells.

Every day at about 7am, the uniformed staffers unlock the duo's cage to feed them and let them wander on the compound.

"If we are late in opening the cage or serving them food, the cubs do not hide their anger, says Arif Kazmi, one of the wildlife guards, with whom the cubs love to frolic.

The food being offered to them these days comprises 25 rotis of wheat and some other items “in keeping with the wildlife department's meagre fiscal resources” that hardly allow them to provide all items suggested by a team of Islamabad Wildlife Management Board during a recent visit. 

But, happy with whatever they get to eat, the cubs play with their caretakers, move around the office building, and climb trees on the compound. Sometimes to the befuddlement of their caretakers they rush towards the ponds or climb onto a tin-roof structure wherein rainbow trout and its troutlets are cultured, respectively, for farmers.

“When we lose their sight for a while this is what we face,'' Kazmi says, pointing to the cubs having entered the troutlets' shelter from a narrow opening at the top and his colleagues beating the roof with sticks to force the duo to scale down. 

“It takes a hell lot of effort to bring them down. Since we can’t beat them we try to create noise so that they descend and settle down in their abode.”

The noise, particularly that of the vehicles, makes the duo scary. If they are out of their cage and a vehicle moves past the compound, they rush towards the other side, bringing smiles to the onlookers for whom bear cubs are an otherwise rare sight and thus a great source of entertainment.

Young children while on their way back home from school or bazaar do not miss dropping into the compound to amuse themselves. 

“Initially we were scared of them. But the fear has dwindled. Now we love to watch them closely and pat them,” 8th grade student Muzammil Chaudhry tells me while he and some other kids play and pat the cubs.

As young boys directly engage themselves with the cubs, many adults watch them from behind the fence on the adjacent link road. 

However, what is now worrying the staff is the gradual change in the behavior of the nearly 14 months old omnivores, as at times the duo becomes aggressive, particularly the female cub.  

This is what necessitates their relocation to their natural habitat in the forests or in some protected area at the earliest, says Naeem Iftikhar Dar, Director of the AJK wildlife and fisheries department.  

“These cubs are too much acclimatized to human beings. Suppose we release them into thick forests and there, on seeing any human they may go close to him out of their previous attachment to the humans,” he tells me.  

“And the scary human might hurt or kill them in self defence.” 

“The second option is to build a big enclosure in some protected area, where they should be kept for a certain period with no contact with the humans. After sometime an opening should be created in the enclosure from where they can ‘escape’ to the wilderness,” adds Dar. 

But that’s not the only issue that these cubs have brought into the spotlight, at least once again. 

Javed Ayub, who has long headed this department and now happens to be its administrative secretary, traces the link between the plight of the wildlife, cubs being an example, and the deep rooted Kashmir conflict.

“So much has been said and written about the human miseries but little does the world know that our flora and fauna have also terribly suffered due to the tensions at the LoC and particularly because of the electric fence built by India in 2004,” he tells me in his office in Muzaffarabad.

“While we can relocate the affected human populations, we cannot evacuate our wildlife whenever there is exchange of shelling across the LoC.” 

According to him, since the terrestrial animals do not remain restricted to a particular area and keep on moving from one location to the other for grazing, predating, breeding and rearing purposes the fence stands in the way of their free movement.

Even though the human settlements in AJK are located close to the LoC as compared to the India held side, the wildlife movement across the divide had however always been a two-way process before the fence was erected, he notes.

Ayub points out that due to less human intervention close to the LoC in India held side, terrestrial animals would find food there in abundance particularly in summers. And as the fence has restricted their cross LoC movement, the carnivores are sometimes compelled to descend onto the human population on our side and get hurt or killed. 

In winters, when snow falls as high as 15-20 feet in the high altitude areas where the fence runs through, some animals move to the opposite side in search of food or sanctum and when the snow melts beneath the fence they do not find a way back to their original habitat, he says.

According to Ayub, Kashmir Stag would be cited from Dawarian to upstream Haanthi Nullah before the construction of the fence. But now its prevalence in AJK is no more, he laments.  

POACHING - MORE PERILUOUS THAN HUNTING  

Last month, a black bear cub, namely Dabbu, was rescued from Lahore after allegedly having been transported from the Neelum valley. 

However, both Ayub and Dar deny this assertion outright. 

“There is no official or unofficial confirmation of the cub's transportation from Neelum. There are many organised groups in Pakistan [involved in illicit animal trade] and they have used the name of our area to divert attention from the actual source,” asserts Ayub.

However he admits that his department faces acute shortage of trained technical staff and fiscal resources to man at least 11 entry-exit points between AJK and Pakistan and take care of all 21 protected areas, including seven national parks, in a territory spread over 13297 sq kilometres.

He agrees that poaching poses more serious threat to the wildlife than hunting, because trading of animals or their parts for fiscal gains means their imminent genocide. However, he regrets that unlike the past, international wildlife conservation organisations are not extending considerable cooperation to his department in this regard.

“Alone, we cannot cope with this uphill task… We need global support.” 

Back in the Dawarian trout hatchery, Kazmi says over the past 14 or so months "Sharda and Narda" have become part of their lives.

“But sooner or later we will have to relocate them to a proper habitat… Surely we will miss them.” 

Tariq Naqash