Imran lambasts "imported regime" for ignoring sacrifices of Kashmiris

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman on Thursday blamed the federal government for clandestinely establishing relations with India for the sake of business interests in disregard to the supreme sacrifices of freedom seeking people of occupied Jammu and Kashmir. 

Terming the Kashmiris as “special people” for their nonstop struggle for freedom in general and the sacrifice of one hundred thousand lives over the past 33 years in particular, he assured them that he would not let their sacrifices go down the drain. 

“As long as I am alive I will not let your sacrifices go to waste. I raised my voice for you at all forums; became your ambassador and it’s my promise to you that at every international forum I will not let the world forget your sacrifices.” 

The PTI chief was addressing a huge gathering in a playground in the heart of Muzaffarabad on the invitation of AJK Prime Minister Sardar Tanveer Ilyas, who is also his party’s regional president. 

Organisers said that it was Khan’s 52^nd public meeting after his ouster from power in April this year. The 20 feet high stage from where he spoke to the audience was also said to be the highest in any public meeting in the country. 

The PTI chief recalled that when on August 5, 2019 the “fascist Narendra Modi led Indian government" had revoked the special status of occupied Jammu and Kashmir under the UN Security Council resolutions, his government had severed all ties with New Delhi. 

“You know very well that every country derives benefits from trade [with other countries]. India is a big country and Pakistan would also have benefited from trade with it. But my government decided that we would never compromise on the Kashmir freedom movement. We made it clear that we will revive relations and trade with India only when it revives the statehood of occupied Jammu and Kashmir.” 

However, without naming any particular nation he alleged that ever since this “imported government had been imposed on the Pakistanis under a foreign conspiracy it was working on the agenda of its foreign masters like puppets.” 

Referring to the audio leaks, the PTI chief said that he owed gratitude to Shehbaz Sharif for leaking his conversation in the PM’s office with his principal secretary Azam Khan, “which had made it clear to the whole world that the cryptic dispatch was a reality.” 

“Shehbaz Sharif you leaked it to harm me but in doing so you have wreaked havoc on yourself,” Khan said. 

He reiterated his claim that the US official Donald Lu had told Pakistan’s ambassador that the failure of no confidence motion against Imran Khan would cause Pakistan a great loss and contrarily his replacement with Shehbaz Sharif would go to the benefit of Pakistan.  

Mocking PM Sharif, he contemptuously said: “Whenever he sees the boots [of generals] he starts polishing them and particularly the biggest boot – a veiled reference to the army chief – is shone in a way that it reflects the image of the person.”

He asserted that the audio leaks had also revealed that while the PTI government had closed trade with India, Maryam Nawaz had imported machinery from India. 

Quoting an alleged conversation between PM Sharif and his principal secretary, the PTI chief said that ever since the “thieves” had been installed they were least bothered [about impact of trade with India].”

“They do not know that we were putting pressure on India that Pakistani people will never mend fences with them unless they restore the statehood of Kashmiris. But what are they doing? They are clandestinely and shamelessly establishing relations with India in disregard to the sacrifices of one hundred thousand Kashmiris.”

“They just want money which is their god.”  

He asserted that Pakistan was at the historic crossroads and continuity of the present regime would render it insolvent and bereft of ideology.

Ishaq Dar lambasted 

The PTI chief also took strong exception to the return and installation of Ishaq Dar as finance minister, alleging that he had given a written confessional statement in 2000 about how he would launder the ill-gotten money of Sharif family. 

" What else could be the biggest crime and disgrace of a country where looters of billions of rupees return after a deal. If we give NRO to such people and give them deals then I ask why you have imprisoned poor people for offences like theft of a cycle, a buffalo or a car?”

“I tell this to the whole nation that if we accept this silently, there won’t be a difference between us and sheep and goats.” 

Nation asked to prepare for his call

Claiming that many turncoats would also make their way to the AJK assemblies he asked people to promise him that whoever traded his conscience would not get their votes to return to the legislature. 

“Because this is disgrace to democracy and to your vote; they are the people who have turned politics into a business activity despite the fact that politics is a service and public abhors the persons who trade their conscience.” 

Khan asked the nation to prepare themselves to respond to his call and asked the Kashmiris to join their Pakistani brethren for a reason. 

“The imported government has cut your budget. We had collected a record tax of Rs 6000 billion in the history of Pakistan. Your share in it was Rs 200 billion but they are hardly giving you Rs 60 billion,” he said, recalling that he had given more funds to the PML-N government in AJK after coming to power in 2018. 

CEC rebuked

The PTI chief also chided chief election commissioner Sultan Sikandar Raja, terming him as “chief electoral fraud.”

“Though we already knew it, the audio leaks have proven that this charlatan has been fixing matches in collusion with the PML-N.”  

“Listen Sultan Sikandar if you possess honour and respect, you should step down and if you don’t this nation will never spare you because you are violating the law and you are committing and planning to commit future electoral fraud.” 

He warned that his party would take every step against the CEC for his plans to “violate the mandate of the people.” 

Earlier, in his speech the AJK premier said that while Khan had proved himself to be the leader of the Islamic world those who claimed themselves of being of Kashmiri origin had started trade with India and had avoided talking about Kashmir at the UN. 

“I assure you that the Kashmiris are on your back because they consider you as their benefactor,” he said, assuring Khan that AJK would witness a real change in all respects in a short span of time in accordance with his vision.  

Prior to him, Pakistan Awami Tehreek leader Shaikh Rashid Ahmed, AJK minister Deevan Ali Chughtai and some others also spoke. 

Tariq Naqash

Imran to address power show by Iyas in Muzaffarabbad today

The ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) is all set to hold a “huge and unique” public meeting in a big playground in the heart of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) capital to be addressed by party’s chairman and former prime minister Imran Khan later in the day today. 

Khan was invited to publicly speak to the Kashmiris – for first time after he was ousted from power through a no trust motion in April this year - by his party’s regional president and AJK prime minister Sardar Tanveer Ilyas who, his team said, had been personally monitoring the arrangements with regard to the event ever since.

Over the past few days the prime minister has been making contacts with party office bearers in different parts of Muzaffarabad division and elsewhere to ensure that their PTI activists faced no problems in making it to the K H Khurshid Mini Football Stadium in Upper Adda neighbourhood of Muzaffarabad to attend the jalsa.

Talking to reporters on Thursday, Ilyas maintained that since the PTI chairman was a leader of international standing and his views were paid heed across the globe.

"Among other things, Khan will give a special message of hope and solidarity to the struggling people of occupied Kashmir from the soil of the liberated territory today."

“What I have gathered from my meetings with people from different segments of society is that everyone is eager to catch a glimpse of the charismatic leader for his bold and unequivocal stance on the just cause of Kashmiris on the one hand and his generous fiscal aid for the development and progress of the liberated territory during his rule on the other,” Ilyas said.

PTI activist Touseef Abbasi told reporters that it would be Khan’s 52nd public meeting in the country after his ouster by the forces “inimical to the progress, prosperity and true freedom of Pakistan. 

At the venue of the public meeting, three grandstands have been erected by a Gujranwala based company towards the northern side, in a departure from the past practice of erecting the stage towards the western side. 

Quoting the stage manufacturing company, Abbasi said that so far such a big and capacious stage had not been installed at any public meeting in Pakistan. 

The 20 feet high main stage offering 24x8 feet space would house Mr Khan, Mr Ilyas and other central leaders while the other two 10 feet high stages, each offering 24x8 feet space, would accommodate local leaders, he said.  

On the front side of the main stage, the outline portraits of Khan and Ilyas with an emblem of haqeeqi azadi (real freedom) in the middle had been printed on a red screen. 

According to another organiser, a separate enclosure fenced with barbed wire and having an independent entrance has been set up for women. 

The ‘special guests’ would be hosted lunch at the PM House while all other participants would be served with packed food in the playground, where around 150 loudspeakers had been installed to ensure audibility in every nook and cranny.

He inforned that Khan’s helicopter would make a landing in a hockey ground near the PM House from where he would drive to Upper Adda along with PM Ilyas through Tariqabad bypass at about 3:30pm.

A police official informed that around 1500 police personnel had been deployed in the city to maintain law and order without causing any inconvenience to the residents.

Tariq Naqash 

Ilyas says no trust against him an "imaginary thing"

Terming no confidence resolution against him an “imaginary thing”, Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Prime Minister Sardar Tanveer Ilyas has denied outright the existence of any “forward block” in the parliamentary party of ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI).

“The no-trust motion may be a wishful thinking of some people [in opposition] who have no idea of our strength,” he said at a reception hosted by him in the honour of a group of senior journalists from Lahore and Islamabad at PM House Muzaffarabad late on Wednesday night. 

“Let it also be clear to everyone there is no forward block in our party. Instead, at least six opposition members are in contact with us,” he claimed. 

“Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf is a political force to be reckoned with. We believe in and profoundly respect the parliamentary norms and will give no space to the double-dealers,” he added.

Ilyas maintained that since he was [regional] PTI president, his decisions would be obeyed by everyone [in the party] in AJK. 

“And whatever decision the party chairman [Imran Khan] makes is binding on all of us,” he added. 

Posting of ACS-D 

The AJK premier took strong exception to an Establishment Division notification issued on Wednesday, placing the services of Muzaffar Khan, a BS-19 officer of Pakistan Administrative Service (PAS), at the disposal of the AJK government for further posting as additional chief secretary-development (ACS-D). 

Muzaffar Khan would replace BS-20 PAS officer Dr Sajid Mahmood Chauhan, but only after the AJK government would endorse his posting through a notification by its Services and General Administration Department. 

On Thursday, Chauhan was transferred and posted through a separate Establishment Division notification as joint secretary Gilgit-Baltistan Council secretariat in Islamabad. 

The ACS-D is one of the five officers - commonly referred to as ‘lent officers’ - that the federal government transfers and posts in AJK ‘under the Karachi Agreement of 1949.'  

PM Ilyas said he had written a letter to Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif around two weeks ago, asking him to let the position of ACS-D rest with the AJK government, but to no avail.  

“And now we receive a letter saying that a BS-19 officer of so-and-so service [group] is coming [to assume the office of ACS-D]. Where will the AJK officers in BS-22 go? Will they sit under him in meetings?” the AJK PM said.

In my presence… [] I do not allow such ‘wonders’ to take place.” 

He said he considered AJK as a unit of Pakistan where everyone from Pakistan was welcome, but not at the cost of rights of the AJK people. 

He said he had proposed inter-provincial transfer of officers so that the civil servants from AJK could serve in the provinces and vice versa on reciprocal basis. 

"Are those [sitting] in the Establishment Division deaf and dumb that they do not know that there are officers much senior [than the newly posted ACS-D],” he questioned. 

He maintained that the AJK officers were prideworthy in all respects and the sitting chief secretary was a course mate of many of them. 

In a veiled reference to a civil revolt of mid 50's in Poonch, Ilyas who himself comes from that area said: "With a man from Poonch at the helm in AJK such injustice cannot be accepted." 

He said the Kashmiris had a conviction that no evil eye could be cast on Pakistan as long as they were alive. 

“But stopping our funds and creating one after the other issue is not fair and amounts to pushing us to the wall." 

Meeting with Shehbaz Sharif

The AJK premier said he had sought a meeting with PM Sharif who could not spare time to undertake one single visit to AJK after assuming this office. 

He recalled that PM Sharif was expected to visit Muzaffarabad in the wake of defects in the Neelum-Jhelum Hydropower Project (NJHP) tunnel system, but that did not happen either. 

“We had to discuss with him the leftover work committed under the NJHP as well as under the Mangla raising project, mainly the Rathoa-Haryam Bridge.” 

Alleging that the present regime had subjected AJK to huge fiscal cuts, he recalled that Imran Khan had not only provided full funds but also increased the development budget for the PML-N led AJK government. 

Tariq Naqash

Imran to address gathering in AJK capital on Sept 29

 

Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) chairman and former prime minister of Pakistan Imran Khan will address a public meeting in the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) capital later this month in what will be his first public appearance in the territory after the last year’s election campaign. 

According to a press release issued on Friday, it was decided by the ruling PTI's parliamentary party to hold the public meeting in K H Khurshid mini stadium in the heart of Muzaffarabad on September 29 “to renew the unflinching affiliation of the Kashmiris with their ambassador.”

The parliamentary party’s emergency meeting was presided over by AJK premier Sardar Tanveer Ilyas, who is also PTI's regional president.  

At a public meeting in Bagh early this month, PM Ilyas had announced that Khan would soon be invited to address a “mammoth gathering” at the place of his choosing in AJK. 

“The venue of the public meeting might be in Muzaffarabad or in Kotli or here in Bagh,” he had said in Bagh, but immediately it was not clear if Muzaffarabad was the choice of Khan or that of Ilyas.  

A participant told this scribe that the parliamentary party in general and PM Ilyas in particular were sanguine about huge public participation in the September 29 event “because of the strong bond between the Kashmiris and Khan.” 

“Kashmiris owe rich tributes to Khan sahib for the way he fought their case at international forums and provided generous funds for the development and prosperity of Azad Kashmir in spite of country’s bad economic condition and they will accord him a rousing reception in Muzaffarabad,” Ilyas said on the occasion.  

He asserted that last year the AJK people had voted for Khan’s vision and ideology to “lay the basis of sustainable development in the liberated territory” and PTI would leave no stone unturned to come up to their expectations. 

According to the press release, the parliamentary party also decided to take part in the forthcoming local bodies elections with full force, expressing optimism that it would clinch victory exactly like that of the last year’s general elections.  

“We will devolve powers to the grassroots level in accordance with the vision of our leader Imran Khan,” PM Ilyas said, informing the participants that the PTI’s parliamentary board for LB polls would soon be constituted.  

The parliamentary party also gave its nod to a proposal by Ilyas to grant tax exemptions for the promotion of industry in AJK, following which a 15-member committee, headed by minister for finance, was constituted to determine the ratio of exemption. The committee was asked to submit its report to the prime minister within two weeks.

“We have to take bold initiatives to create an investment friendly atmosphere in our state so that we can attract more and more investors which will eventually create employment opportunities and strengthen our economy,” PM Ilyas said.  

Tariq Naqash 

AJK and GB to bridge gaps after seven decades

Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Prime Minister Sardar Tanveer Ilyas and Gilgit-Baltistan Chief Minister Khalid Khurshid have accused the Shehbaz Sharif led federal government of pushing their territories to the wall by slashing their rightful share in fiscal grants.

Both leaders also resolved to establish institutional linkages between their respective areas to bridge the gaps prevailing for more than the past seven decades. 

They were talking to media persons after a dinner hosted by Mr Ilyas in the honour of Mr Khurshid at PM House here on Wednesday night. The talk concluded shortly before midnight. 

“The prime minister of Pakistan is the prime minister of the whole country regardless of which parties govern which province or state. But, sadly, this time round the government in Islamabad has come with a different agenda and motto to push their opponents to the wall,” maintained Ilyas in his opening comments. 

“This is surprising, rather shocking,” he added.

Stating that nobody could remain in the government for life, he asked the ruling coalition in Islamabad to "give up discriminatory attitude and instead show political maturity and farsightedness.”

“If you give us money, which you will have to, it’s not coming from your personal kitty but from the coffers of the state.” 

He cited that many of his employees were unable to claim salaries or pledged allowances for want of funds. 

He said that the Rs 500 billion package announced by former Prime Minister Imran Khan for AJK had also been stopped by the incumbent government.

“People are speaking out against us… because they don’t know the reality. In fact, it’s we who the Almighty blessed to make mighty decisions [for the welfare of people].” 

“If you think by denying us our share you can make us bow down, you are mistaken.” 

 He said AJK’s share in the variable grant, according to a mutually agreed formula, was more than Rs 200 billion and “we say if you can’t give us this much money, give us just Rs 100 billion.” 

He asserted that Imran Khan had generously increased the share of both the AJK and GB governments, despite the fact they were ruled by the PML-N. 

Speaking on the occasion, Khurshid said over the last seven decades, GB and AJK lacked the kind of a relationship that should have existed between them “perhaps because of the negligence of the leadership on both sides.”

Terming Muzaffarabad as his first and not second home, he said he and Ilyas had agreed to strengthen ties between their respective areas through different measures, including construction of Shounthar tunnel. 

He said they had also decided that a Kashmir House would be built in Gilgit and a GB House would be built in Muzaffarabad. 

Khurshid said Pakistan’s economic condition had never been exemplary but every government of the past had taken good care of GB and AJK. 

“If the past rulers were unable to provide additional funds at least they did not slash the existing amount. But the incumbent regime is the first set-up that has cut our grants, thus completely pushing both regions to the wall.”

“We are therefore right in believing that it’s an imported government which has come to power with a specific agenda.”

The GB CM was of the view that connection between the people of AJK and GB was a must for freedom of occupied Kashmir, because only they could better explain and advocate the issue. 

“I believe instead of leaving the Kashmir issue at the mercy of the federal government or foreign ministry we should ourselves become its torchbearers… We should rise, talk about it and involve all those people who are willing to support us in this regard.

He said he wanted to call on the UN Secretary General to discuss climate change and the Kashmir issue. 

The area we come from is neither visited by development partners nor by INGOs while the World Bank says we are a disputed territory. We ought to talk to the UN Secretary General that the GB and AJK should be given preferential treatment in funding by the UN agencies.”

Khurshid invited his political rivals to support his efforts for inter-connectivity between and betterment of the people of GB and AJK.   

Responding questions, he alleged that the federal government was trying to topple his government “by hook or by crook.”

“They are working to weaken the judiciary in GB by trying to induct their favourites in violation of an adopted procedure… They are trying to reduce the term of assembly. Last but not the least, they have cut our budget.”

“I don’t have any hope of goodness from them. But I am sure Allah will humiliate them like He has done to them in the past.” 

GB Provincial Status 

Between the lines, Khurshid maintained that the grant of provincial status to GB and AJK, without causing harm to Kashmir cause and violating UN resolutions, could help both regions overcome their fiscal and other problems. 

However, when a reporter posed the same question distinctly, he acknowledged that it had been a moot point. 

“If we look at it in the context of the Kashmir issue, the resolution passed by the GB Assembly categorically stated that the region wants to be brought into constitutional ambit without weakening the Kashmir issue and Pakistan’s position on it in the UN.”

“But we are not hurrying up because we have a commitment to the Kashmir issue. It’s sort of a sacrifice and silent jihad.”

Khurshid was of the view that if AJK and GB got “constitutional guarantees without damaging Kashmir issue and UN resolutions” not only that no one would be able to cut their budgets, they would also have political representations at the highest political forums.

“If anyone amongst you becomes foreign minister tomorrow (after becoming a member of the Parliament), will you not fight your case on Kashmir in a different way?”

He said in his view it was time for practical steps with a different strategy, because the strategy being pursued over the past seven decades had nothing but [hollow] promises to the Kashmiris waiting for us. 

Tariq Naqash 

Despite being abroad, AJK president 'physically holds meetings back home'

Despite having left Pakistan on a three-weeks long private foreign tour early this month, Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) President Barrister Sultan Mahmood is however appearing in a section of press almost daily holding different meetings in Muzaffarabad and Islamabad, thanks to his media team. 

Mahmood had flown out of Pakistan from Islamabad International Airport in the small hours of September 3. However, a notification about his tour was issued by the Services and General Administration Department (S&GAD) three days after his departure following a tittle-tale in official circles about his sudden “disappearance” without a proper proclamation.  

The S&GAD notification stated that the competent authority had accorded approval to the “private visit of President Sultan Mahmood to the USA from September 5 to September 26” with no financial liability on the AJK government.

In the absence of the president from the country, the legislative assembly speaker assumes his office, without requiring any separate notification to this effect.

However, ever since the president’s departure, his media team has been regularly feeding the local media, through the press information department (PID), reports about his one or the other engagement either in Muzaffarabad or in Islamabad. 

For example, on Sept 5, a press release by his office said that a joint meeting of the Higher Education Commission of Pakistan and the universities of AJK was organized at Kashmir House Islamabad on Monday with president Mahmoud in the chair.

On Sept 6, a handout said that President Mahmood had chaired a meeting of Mangla Dam Housing Authority in Islamabad on Tuesday.

On Sept 8, a press release by his office said that a delegation of the AJK Zakat Council had called on President Mahmood in Muzaffarabad on Thursday.

On Sept 9, his office informed in a handout that the “US Embassy’s political counsellor and political officer Robert Keane had called on President Mahmood in Islamabad on Friday.”   

As it was not enough, the latest of the series of press releases was issued on Sept 13, stating that “President Mahmood had presided over the Senate meeting of Kotli University in Islamabad on Tuesday.”

Surprised at these handouts, some civil society activists had taken to social media with interesting comments. 

“President's soul might be wandering in Kashmir,” tweeted Abdul Majid Azad, a young Kashmiri management graduate.

Naila Altaf Kayani, a Muzaffarabad based political and social activist, echoed his views with slightly different words.

“If the AJK President has left for a USA tour on Sept 5 (according to an official notification) then is it his "ghost" who is chairing and holding meetings in Islamabad and Muzaffarabad almost daily during his absence in the country? Will someone in the presidency clarify?” she tweeted.  

Some netizens had also drawn attention to the fact that AJK had functioned without a constitutional head from Sept 3 to Sept 6 following the “without notice” departure of the president. 

When questioned by this correspondent,
Mahmood’s Press Secretary Kamal Haider did not find anything unprofessional in this practice. 

“The president had held all these important meetings before his departure and we are releasing handouts about them one by one for the consumption of readers,” he said in his terse response.

Tariq Naqash

Another 'tug of war' in AJK ruling party, as speaker aspires to premiership

A covert campaign by a key leader of the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) to replace Prime Minister Sardar Tanveer Ilyas by himself seems to have fallen flat, at least for the time being, for want of the requisite support from within the parliamentary party, it emerged on Monday. 

Ilyas was elected as new Leader of the House in April this year, replacing Sardar Abdul Qayyum Niazi - the first pick of Imran Khan after his PTI party had clinched a clear victory in July last year's AJK polls.  

However, for quite some time the AJK capital has again been abuzz with speculations that another no-confidence motion is on the cards. The speculations had borrowed credence after Speaker Chaudhry Anwarul Haq’s strained relations with Ilyas and his alleged secret meetings with some opposition leaders for their support to his candidature for the coveted office or vice versa. 

Haq, who was initially a strong proponent of Ilyas’ nomination for the AJK premiership, has been at loggerheads with him for the past few months in protest against what he believes the latter’s “extraordinary leanings” towards President Barrister Sultan Mahmood.

He was particularly angry at preference to Mahmood in matters related to Mirpur division, mainly the postings and transfers of senior officials, sources in the PTI said. Haq and Mahmood both come from Mirpur division’s Bhimber and Mirpur districts, respectively. Apart from being the speaker, of late Haq has also assumed the office of AJK Public Accounts Committee Chairman.

Interestingly, Haq had already been at daggers drawn with Mahmood, something he has never tried to conceal. At one of his public meetings during the last year’s election campaign he had berated Mahmood, then PTI’s regional president, for “supporting his rival Chaudhry Tariq Farooq from the then ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N).”

Haq won his first election in 2006 with the support of Mahmood and Raja Zulqarnain, a powerful landlord and political figure of Bhimber who rose to the office of AJK president the same year. Zulqarnain has been supporting Haq ever since. 

At least three important cabinet members, who spoke to this scribe on condition of anonymity, asserted that Haq “wanted his choice in transfers and postings of civil servants in Mirpur division implemented without an iota of dissent.” 

“As far as the affairs of the Speaker's Bhimber district are concerned, his choice has always been given preference by the prime minister but he wants that he should be given equal importance in postings of divisional officers alongside the president,” one of them said. 

Another minister recalled that during the recent sessions of Assembly, Haq did not camouflage his resentment towards the government following which PM Ilyas had constituted a four-member ministerial committee to address his "genuine concerns and grievances."

“Nevertheless, the tone and tenor of the speaker suggests that he has come to a point of no return,” he said, lamenting that the “tug of war” within the PTI was making a mockery of the party particularly when it had already changed its parliamentary leader [in AJK] in less than a year. 

Political observer Naila Altaf Kayani maintained that Ilyas was caught between the devil and the deep blue sea because he had to face pressures from both the president and speaker to prefer their respective choices in many matters.

“Notwithstanding Haq’s support to him, the prime minister cannot afford to offend President Mahmood in a wanton manner because two members of the president family - son Yasir Sultan and brother-in-law Chaudhry Arshad - are also part of the cabinet,” she said. 

Sources close to Ilyas confided to this scribe that on Friday night Ilyas had discussed in detail the prevailing situation with Aamer Mehmood Kiani, PTI’s additional secretary general, in the context of the rumours about no trust against him and both had “resolved to cut the conspirators down to size.”

 As Kiani was reported to have passed on the crux of discussion to Khan, the latter had “not only expressed his trust in Ilyas but had also assured him that any conspiracy to destabilize his government would not be tolerated,” these sources claimed.

In pictures, Ilyas was seen whispering in Khan's ears while sharing stage with him at PTI's power show in Jhelum on Saturday night. 

Sources close to Haq confirmed that the ministerial team had met Haq on Saturday with an offer to sit with the PM to sort out differences. However, he did not budge from his stance.  

However, what had intensified Haq’s anger was prime minister’s invitation to former president Zulqarnain to see him at his private residence in Islamabad on Sunday. Later in the afternoon, Ilyas was also visited by Mahmood at his residence and both leaders were seen tittering in a relaxed mood in the officially released pictures.  

According to sources, Haq had remarked in front of some people that Ilyas had crossed the red line by meddling in his constituency.

The ministers who spoke to this scribe emphatically said that hardly any PTI lawmaker could go against the decision of Khan in the prevailing situation “particularly when everyone has seen for himself how the people have treated the turncoats” in Pakistan. 

“At a time when the party is confronting vindictive measures of the imported regime on the one hand and reaching out to the masses for a real change in the country on the other, chairman Khan can hardly consider swapping the parliamentary leader [in AJK],” asserted one of them. 

When contacted by this scribe on phone after several attempts for his version, Haq declined to take up any question on this issue. 

This scribe also made calls to PTI senior vice president Fawad Chaudhry, secretary general Asad Umar and additional secretary general Kiani to ascertain their viewpoint on the situation in their party’s AJK chapter, but while the cell phones of Chaudhry and Kiani were switched off, Umar did not attend call or respond to the text message.

Tariq Naqash

AJK Assembly resolves to protect territory’s constitutional rights

 Opposition and treasury benches in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Assembly on Friday vowed to resist any attempt aimed at divesting the liberated territory and its people of the rights they had gained through a landmark constitutional amendment some four years ago. 

The rare consensus was demonstrated by them during a debate on an adjournment motion by PML-N leader and former AJK premier Raja Farooq Haider, wherein he took strong exception to a recent letter from the Ministry of Kashmir affairs wherein nomination of three representatives from the AJK government was sought for a sub-committee constituted to “examine and finalise the proposed draft of 15^th amendment.”

Haider noted that the state of Jammu and Kashmir was a disputed territory whose future status was to be determined by its inhabitants through a UN sponsored plebiscite and it was surprising that the Foreign Office of Pakistan had been ignored in the process, making people feel that the “governments in India and Pakistan had acceded to division of Kashmir under some tacit agreement.”

“The letter has disregarded facts and attempts to undermine the honour of the Legislative Assembly. It has not only hurt the Kashmiris who have always braved India’s machinations but also runs the risk of creating misgivings between the Kashmiris and the government of Pakistan,” he maintained. 

Initiating debate on his motion after the Friday prayers break amid thin attendance on both sides of the divide, Haider recalled that this house had “restored the constitutional, legal, financial and administrative authority of the AJK government in accordance with the spirit of parliamentary democracy and the aspirations of Kashmiris” through the 13^th amendment in June 2018.

He expressed his gratitude to Nawaz Sharif and Shahid Khaqan Abbasi for facilitating the approval of 13^th amendment. 

Haider, who had brought sundry documents and booklets to quote during his speech, traced the history of AJK’s constitutional evolution right from 1947 amid “unrelenting mischief-making by the Ministry of Kashmir affairs” and said it was why the AJK leadership had agreed to formation of AJK Council during the era of Zulfikar Ali Bhutto.

“However, little did they know that Mr Bhutto will be removed from power after a few years and the Council will become another Chiragh Baig for us,” he said in a reference to a notorious despotic Afghan governor of Kashmir in Mughal rule. 

Declaring himself a nationalist “like all Kashmiris” he wondered why someone had coined the “absurd term of sub-nationalist.”

However, he asked the nationalists that while presenting their viewpoint, they should not lay any blame on the state of Pakistan - the only country on the back of the Kashmiris from day one. 

“Please exercise caution and do not equate Pakistan with India.”

Haider made it clear that as long as AJK remained in existence with the existing special status, the struggle for freedom of the India occupied territory would continue with vigour. 

Without naming anyone, the former premier said someone wanted to take undue benefit of the compulsions of the [PML-N led] central government to get the AJK constitution amended.

“But let me declare this will not happen,” he said, expressing the hope that ruling PTI would also resist the move.

Warning that such attempts were bound to create anti-Pakistan sentiments, the former AJK premier said he was tight-lipped on many issues lest it could create unrest.

Barring few, most of his views were endorsed not only by Sardar Hassan Ibrahim of Jammu Kashmir People’s Party and Bazil Ali Naqvi of Pakistan People’s Party from the opposition benches, but also minister for education Deevan Ali Chughtai, minister for local government Khawaja Farooq Ahmed and some other treasury members. 

“Even though no Pakistani government pursued the Kashmir issue the way we expected, yet we are Pakistanis from beginning to end… Why do you do things that create misgivings about you,” said Ibrahim, urging all parties to rise above political differences and unitedly reject any move against constitutional and financial rights.

Chughtai who spoke on behalf of Prime Minister Sardar Tanveer Ilyas was of the view that neither Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif nor any other federal government dignitary was behind the move.

“It’s the corrupt officials of the AJK Council who want restoration of previous status.” 

Ahmed assured that the PTI government would not compromise on the constitutional and financial rights of the people. “Rather we will try to acquire more rights.” 

Later, the chair prorogued the session sine die with a note that debate would be resumed whenever the house held the next sitting.  

Tariq Naqash 

Kashmiri refugees seek raise in allowance

Representatives of post-1989 migrants from India occupied Kashmir have called upon the prime ministers and parliamentary leaders of Pakistan and Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) to "substantially increase their monthly subsistence allowance to help them make both ends meet."  

The demand, through different letters, was on Wednesday publicly endorsed by Syed Salahuddin, the head of an alliance of indigenous Kashmiris outfits struggling to overthrow Indian occupation. 

According to the official records, 7855 families, comprising 43037 persons, are registered with the AJK rehabilitation department as refugees from across the divide.  

Of them, 3101 families, comprising 17340 persons, are living in 11 camps in Muzaffarabad and Jhelum valley districts, 1159 families, comprising 6766 persons, in five camps in Bagh district and 814 families, comprising 4556 persons, in two camps in Kotli district.

Apart from them, 2781 families, comprising 14375 persons, are living out of camps in different towns.

The government provides a monthly subsistence allowance of Rs 2000 to each of them. Additionally, a monthly stipend ranging from Rs 100 to 300 is given to students from nursery to university students.

However, according to Uzair Ahmed Ghazali and other representatives of refugees, they were finding it next to impossible to make both ends meet in this paltry allowance. 

“Some three decades ago, we left our homes and hearths in occupied Kashmir due to the savagery of the Indian army and have been living ever since in makeshift camps in miserable conditions,” said Mr Ghazali.  

“The sense of deprivation among the refugees is multiplying with each passing day which should be a matter of grave concern for the Kashmiri and Pakistani leadership,” he added.

Mr Ghazali said they had urged Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Prime Minister Sardar Tanveer Ilyas to increase the monthly subsistence allowance by Rs 1500 (taking it to Rs 3500 per person) and were expecting a favourable response from them.

He demanded of the AJK government to allot the two to three marla land of their abodes in different camps to the refugees to help them obtain ‘domicile certificates.’ 

The refugee leader regretted that the 6pc quota of refugees in AJK government jobs was not being fully implemented due to which hundreds of educated youths were unable to secure inductions.

Mr Ghazali said the post 1989 refugees wanted the AJK government to reserve two seats in the Legislative Assembly for them so that their representatives could "put their share in policy making on their rehabilitation as well as the Kashmir freedom movement."

Meanwhile, in a statement, United Jihad Council chief Syed Salahuddin called upon “all people at the helm” to take immediate steps to ameliorate the living conditions of post-1989 migrants. 

“If the salaries of dearness-stricken government officials can be raised considerably, why those terrorised by the Indian army have been ignored,” he said. 

He warned that inaction to address the “grave situation” on a priority basis was bound to leave a negative impact on the freedom movement.” 

Tariq Naqash 

JKLF terms "confession" by Yasin Malik as untrue Indian propaganda

Jammu Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) has strongly condemned the Indian act of impleading its incarcerated chairman Muhammad Yasin Malik in a concocted, fabricated and politically motivated case of terrorism filed by India’s notorious National Investigation Agency (NIA) in a New Delhi court.

“This act is immoral, illegal and reflection of political vendetta against the JKLF chief and has been done on the dictates of India’s [Narendra] Modi led Hindutva regime to silence a popular and the most powerful voice of people’s right for independence of the internationally disputed State of Jammu Kashmir,” said Malik’s special representative and JKLF chief spokesperson Rafiq Dar in a statement.

He also refuted reports in Indian media about his alleged confession of charges and termed it as “untrue and malicious and one-sided.”

Dar noted that ever since Malik’s arrest on February 22, 2019 and particularly after his transfer to New Delhi’s infamous Tihar Jail on May 10, 2019, he had decided not to contest these fabricated cases and had withdrawn his defence lawyer in protest after observing and anticipating the unfair and biased court proceedings and the ill intentions of the Indian government. 

The JKLF chief, he said, had always refuted and rubbished the charges of terrorism and terror funding levelled against him by infamous NIA and had been terming the court process arbitrary and an act of political victimization.

The court had turned down Malik’s repeated demands for a fair trial apart from asking it to look into the history of JKLF and his role in the promotion of religious harmony, nonviolence and peaceful settlement of Kashmir conflict, but to no avail, he added.

On May 10, during the course of hearing, Malik once again repeated the same argument and asked the judge that if his demand for freedom was a crime then he was ready to face the consequences.

 Thereby, terming his demand for freedom as a “confession of the charges” levelled in the concocted cases against him, the judge illegally and unfairly pleaded him guilty, Dar said.

He pointed out that for the last three years Malik had been languishing in solitary confinement in Tihar Jail and was out of contact even with his immediate family. 

“So, such stories coming out from the Indian side, like his confession of charges levelled in the concocted cases against him, are untrue, malicious, one sided and biased.”

The spokesman also condemned “all those propagandists who at the behest of Indian agencies were busy in maligning Malik on social media” and asked the Kashmiri people not to fall prey to false propaganda by India and its well-known stooges living in and outside the disputed Himalayan region.

“The Kashmiri nation living from across the ceasefire line have already rejected these stooges as they are the paid agents of Indian agencies working for India and against our freedom movement,” Dar said, without naming anyone. 

Meanwhile, separately, Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Prime Minister Sardar Tanveer Ilyas has also strongly condemned the unilateral trial by India’s special court against the prominent pro-freedom leader Yasin Malik, terming it immoral and unjustified.

He said Malik had spent his entire life in the resistance movement against India’s occupation forces and he was being subjected to political vengeance and religious hatred in India.

“Yasin Malik is a political prisoner, a liberation [movement] leader who has been peacefully championing the Kashmiris’ just cause of freedom the way Mahatma Gandhi and Nehru fought against the British rule,” he said.

Calling for a befitting response to counter Indian media’s negative propaganda the AJK premier asked the social media activists on this side of the Line of Control should refrain from “copy and paste” practice of the news run by the Indian media. 

“Copy-pasting Indian version of the news on social media is tantamount to becoming the part of the Indian propaganda campaign,” he said. 

Ilyas vowed that he would raise this issue with other political stakeholders including the Hurriyat Conference and other international organizations working for human rights.

Naming several prominent Kashmiri detainees, he said India’s apartheid regime wanted to silence all political leaders, civil society and human rights activists and media persons by keeping them in jails for longer durations.

He called upon the Kashmiri diaspora to mobilize the US Congress, the British and European parliaments and the UN Human Rights Council on this issue.

Tariq Naqash