Students across AJK show solidarity with their brethren in IHK

Thousands of schoolchildren, accompanied by sizeable number of adults, staged rallies and demonstrations across Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) on Wednesday to condemn unceasing Indian atrocities on innocent people of held Kashmir, particularly the recent crackdowns on educational institutions, and show solidarity with the victims.

Drawn from state-run institutions, the students paraded through the streets in almost all major cities and towns, holding banners and placards, inscribed with a variety of slogans calling for an end to the state sponsored terrorism in held Kashmir as well as intervention of the United Nations (UN) and international community for an early solution to the lingering dispute, in accordance with the wishes of Kashmiri people.

Students gather at Burhan Wani Chowk for solidarity show

In state capital Muzaffarabad, the protesting students first gathered at Burhan Wani Chowk near Press Club, where they were briefly addressed by AJK Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider, Minister for Education Barrister Iftikhar Gillani, renowned Kashmiri activists Uzair Ghazali and Mushtaqul Islam and some representatives of the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC).

 Some of the students were holding black flags while some were carrying national flags of Pakistan and AJK, which they kept on waiving throughout the demonstration.

After the speeches were over, the gathering, led by the AJK premier, marched towards the office of the UN Military Observers Group for India and Pakistan (UNMOGIP) near Domel, where a protest note was delivered to the UN observers.

Young girls enthusiastically chant anti India slogans

All along the march, participants kept on chanting slogans: “Hai haq hamara azadi, hum cheen k lain gay azadi (freedom is our right and we will snatch it).”

Speaking to correspondents on the occasion, young boys and girls said they were deeply impressed and inspired by the outstanding gallantry of Kashmiri youth while challenging a ferocious army equipped with lethal weapons.

“Our hearts go out to our brothers and sisters in occupied Kashmir who have been braving the worst ever repression of modern history at the hands of brute Indian forces… I pay salute to their heroism,” said Tayyiba Batool a tenth grade student.

“The Pharaoh and Nimrod also considered themselves the mightiest but eventually they were devastated by the Allah Almighty, and same will happen to their likes in today’s world,” she added in an attempt to give solace to the oppressed Kashmiris.

Many also lamented the silence of the UN and said it was high time the World Body played its long-overdue role in resolving the longest pending issue on its agenda to justify its creation and existence.

“As a result of the unrelenting repression by Indian troops, the calamitous situation in the held Valley warrants for immediate action by the UN. And if the UN does not rise to the occasion, there is no point of having such a toothless and worthless organization,” said Daniyal Mumtaz, wearing traditional Boy Scout uniform.

He said the demonstrations were a message that notwithstanding the bloody line that separated Kashmiris from each other, people on this side of the divide were fully conscious and concerned about the sufferings of their brethren in held Kashmir.

AJK premier leads the rally towards UN office

Responding to question by some media persons, PM Haider called upon Prime Minister Nawaz Sharif to ensure stoppage of atrocities on the Kashmiris as well as their freedom from Indian yoke, “because it was his responsibility as leader of the Quaid-e-Azam’s party.”

He said the Kashmiris wanted a peaceful solution to their problem and would give another chance to the UN and world community to make it happen.

“Otherwise the responsibility of further aggravation of situation will not rest on the Kashmiris,” he said. 

Participants of a similar rally in Rawalakot, led by deputy commissioner Poonch Raja Tahir Mumtaz, also presented a memorandum to the UN observers in the town.

Similar rallies were held not only at all district headquarters, but also at many tehsil headquarters in AJK.

Tariq Naqash

PML-N govt takes moral low-ground in offering package to retired 'lent officers'

IGP Bashir Ahmed Memon

IGP Memon declines the package and asks govt to revoke it

A Police Service of Pakistan (PSP) officer, belonging to interior Sindh, has won the hearts and minds of people in the country’s extreme north by turning down an attractive post-retirement package offered by the cash-strapped Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) government.

Ever since, the response of Bashir Ahmed Memon, Inspector General of Police (IGP) in AJK, is in circulation, the social media has been flooded with comments eulogizing his “exceptional” gesture in a society where majority of the government servants carries the notoriety of screwing benefits out of official kitty. 

At the same time, the PML-N led AJK government is also under scathing criticism for “doling out taxpayers’ money” in sheer disregard to its tall claims on fiscal and administrative reforms.

It was on March 28, when the AJK Services and General Administration Department (S&GAD) clandestinely issued a notification to supplement the facilities admissible to the chief secretaries under an earlier notification issued on June 15, 2006 when the region was reeling from the aftereffects of a devastating earthquake. 

Through the June 15, 2006 notification, which was renewed on June 4, 2011, the chief secretaries were offered the services of a cook and a driver for lifetime, after their retirement, from the AJK taxpayers’ money.

S&GAD notification

The March 28 notification not only added 800 free local phone calls, 800 units of electricity, 25 cubic hectometre (25million cubic metre) gas and 200 litres petrol per month to the post-retirement benefits of the chief secretaries but it went on to declare the admissibility of the same benefits to the IGPs as well, after their retirement.

The chief secretaries and IGPs are posted in AJK by the federal government under Karachi agreement of 1949 for a tenure that has rarely exceeded three years. They are commonly referred to as ‘lent officers.’

While the chief secretaries, already enjoying the services of cook and driver, were happy with the additional facilities, the response of IGP Memon to the notification not only baffled the government but it also plunged her to moral low ground, sources within the bureaucracy confided to this scribe.

 “Prima facie, these privileges would amount to putting additional burden on the exchequer of the state (AJK),” Memon maintained in a demi-official letter to Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider, a copy of which was available with this scribe.

 “The AJK IGPs belong to the Police Service of Pakistan (group) and their services are acquired from the federal government for a limited period, during which they enjoy all those perks and privileges admissible to this office… And I also draw an attractive salary and other benefits for my services here,” he added.

Continuing, Memon said holding the office of IGP and leading the police force in AJK with honor and dignity was in itself a great privilege and a matter of pride for him.

“I am thankful to the Almighty as well as the government and people of Azad Kashmir for the love and respect I enjoy here and does not consider myself worthy of these benefits, particularly when the AJK police is already facing acute shortage of manpower,” Mr Memon said, and called upon Mr Haider to revoke the notification from the date of issuance.

IGP Memon with this scribe

When contacted, Memon confirmed that he had asked the government to withdraw the notification in the wake of its poor fiscal health and pressing local needs.

He said he earnestly believed that there was no justification for the ‘lent officers’ to claim these benefits from the AJK exchequer, a place where they served for a short term.  

“To me, my constable serving in front of Indian guns along the Line of Control or the families of retired junior grade police personnel deserve this amount more than a retired IGP,” he said. 

Civil society was all praise for Memon.

“Hats off to Mr Memon. He has touched our hearts and taught a lesson to the local official machinery which always runs for more and more perks and privileges,” said Arisha Ali Khan, an MPhil student from Mirpur.

Defending the decision, AJK minister for finance Dr Najeeb Naqi maintained that since all other provinces, particularly Punjab, were offering same or more benefits to retired chief secretaries and IGPs, “we have just replicated them.”

When he was reminded that unlike Punjab AJK faced acute shortage of funds every month, even for payment of salaries and pension, he claimed that the additional funds for these benefits would also be provided by the central government.”

But there was hardly any voice in favour of the government.

 “The IGP’s response is a slap in the face of a government that has gone back on its promises to curtail unnecessary expenditures,” remarked Raja Mansoor, a civil society activist from Muzaffarabad.

 “In fact the IGP has exposed the duplicity of this deficit ridden government that flatters lent officers with generous offers in spite of carrying a begging bowl to seek funds from Islamabad,” he added.

It may be mentioned here that the AJK government has been facing an “accumulative shortfall” of about Rs 25 billion in its receipts and expenditures since 2009-10.

Every month, payment of salaries and pensions turns out be a thorn in the side of the government as State Bank of Pakistan stops clearance of its cheques, when it exceeds its overdraft limit of Rs 4.5 billion.

A ruling PML-N activist was among those who showered praise on Memon.

“By refusing to accept these perks, Mr Memon has tried his bit to inculcate sense among us. He will always be appreciated and remembered by us for his professionalism, humility and compassion,” said Sohail Iqbal Awan, a resident of Muzaffarabad.

Memon, who hails from Hala in Mitiari district, was posted as AJK IGP in March 2016.

Unlike most of his predecessors, he is thoroughly unpretentious and moves around without police escorts.

During the days of his posting in Sindh, he had faced three transfers in three years reportedly due to his straightforwardness.

Tariq Naqash 

PML-N workers despondent over "inaction" against the corrupt

Activists of the ruling Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) appear to be despondent over what they allege inaction of their government against the elements who had “feathered their nests” during the previous regimes.

A vocal Haji Jamshed Mir speaks at a press conference

“Now those elements have started mocking us for the very reason and that is very painful,” said Haji Jamshed Mir, one of the founding workers of PML-N in district Neelum, at a press conference in Muzaffarabad on Sunday.

Mir, who was flanked by several other activists, had opened an office of PML-N in his Dudhniyal village in the upper belt of Neelum valley in July 2009, almost one and a half years before the party was formally launched by Mr Nawaz Sharif in AJK.

His press talk was the first open expression of dissatisfaction with the policies of PML-N that clinched sweeping victory in 2016 polls and is believed to be close to the hearts of many party workers across the state.

Mir said he was at a loss to understand why the PML-N government in AJK had not been dealing with the people who had “brazenly lined their pockets with public money, particularly during the past five years of PPP rule.”

According to him, maximum corruption had been done in the execution of development schemes and appointments in different departments, mainly education.

Funds were doled out to favorites with impunity against development schemes worked up by local government and rural development, public works and other development related departments, but hardly any of those projects existed on the ground, he alleged.

Similarly, appointments were made either on the basis of inducements or political affiliations through suspicious and factitious advertisement and recruitment process, he added.

He said the forests were the most precious wealth of Neelum valley as well as the main source of its natural beauty, but the same had been unashamedly denuded by the timber mafia in collusion with corrupt officials of the forests department.

“There is no let up to illegal felling and smuggling of trees, even now, because neither the mafia nor their unscrupulous patrons in the forests department were taken to task by our party’s government after coming to power more than eight months ago,” he lamented.

Mir claimed that all these “corrupt practices” were known to the accountability related institutions as well as the top PML-N leadership in AJK, but they seemed to be held hostage by “political expediencies.”

“Tell me, has a single corrupt officer been penalized by our government after coming to power in July last year,” he questioned and added: “In fact, their indolence in this regard is plunging us in utter despondency.”

Mir said he was ready to prove his point at any forum, without any fear or favour.

He admitted that Legislative Assembly speaker Shah Ghulam Qadir, who has returned from Neelum valley, had got initiated some mega schemes in a short span of time, which could play a pivotal role in socio-economic uplift of the area.

However, he maintained, Mr Qadir also appeared to be helpless in taking those elements to task who had played havoc with the resources of valley.

“He is Legislative Assembly Speaker and does not enjoy any executive authority. The powers to bring corrupt officials and their henchmen vest with the prime minister who is yet to swing into action in accordance with his pre-election avowals,” he said.

Mir said the PML-N workers across AJK were equally discontented with their government’s policy about appointments against the discretionary posts.

“It’s we, the workers, who faced mistreatment for their opposition to the corrupt practices of previous regime but now when our party is in power we are being made to feel as aliens,” he said.

 “If the government considers the bureaucrats suitable for discretionary posts as well, then the cabinet slots should also be given to them, instead of the MLAs,” he said.

This scribe failed to reach Mr Qadir for his comments on Mir’s press talk, because he was on a tour to his constituency. 

Tariq Naqash

Humanitarianism at its best

Bhimber's businessperson offers yet again his precious land for a public cause free of cost 

At a time when materialism appears to be increasing exponentially and people do not recoil at the thought of making away with fellow human beings on petty land disputes, some exceptions however betoken that the society is not bereft of the goodness of mankind.

One such example drew the attention of this scribe after a brief official handout disclosed that a local businessman in Bhimber district of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) had once again offered his precious land to the AJK government for a project of public utility.

The handout said that Khawaja Zaffar Iqbal Butt handed over transfer deed of 30 kanals of land, worth at least Rs 60 million, to AJK Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider at a brief ceremony in Bhimber, the other day, for establishment of a technical education institution thereon.

Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider (right) and Chairman TEVTA Zafar Nabi 

Butt receive land transfer deed from Khawaja Zaffar Iqbal Butt (middle)

AJK’s senior minister Chaudhry Tariq Farooq, who represents Bhimber city in the AJK legislature, minister for information Mushtaq Minhas, MLA from Barnala Col retired Waqar Noor and several other government functionaries were also present on the occasion.

Bhimber is likely to home an industrial zone under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC). Mr Butt said he wished to see young boys and girls imparted training in different skills to meet the requirement of skilled human resource for the proposed zone and added that chairman AJK Technical Education and Vocational Authority Zafar Nabi Butt, who also belongs to Bhimber, had drawn his attention towards this noble deed.  

The prime minister was so much moved by the generosity that he announced on the occasion that the government would establish a full-fledged College of Technology on the land by allocating resources for it in the next fiscal year.

Interestingly, the PWD Rest House, where the ceremony was held, has also been built on a piece of land donated by Mr Butt to the AJK government in 2010.

Initially, Mr Butt was asked to spare just 2 kanals for the rest house but he offered 3 kanals. And by the time the project saw completion it had been spread over 5 kanals, but Mr Butt never raised his eyebrow at the expansion.

And it was not the only piece of land offered by the Good Samaritan for a public cause. There were already many other in the list.

Previously, Mr Butt had spared land not only for a mosque and adjacent seminary in a housing scheme raised by him in Bhimber city, but also two plots for construction of the buildings of Rescue 1122 and press club.

It did not end here, in 2013 and 2014, he gave 40 plots of one kanal each to Bhimber based professionals, such as academics lawyers, doctors and engineers, and as many plots of 7-marla each to the local landless people in his housing scheme, without any charges.

The 52 year old, who spent considerable time of his life in United Kingdom as a dual nationality holder before returning to Pakistan, had purchased 3500 kanals in Bhimber city in 2004. Later, he also built an RCC bridge over a wide water channel to connect his land with local courts and other offices.

 Khawaja Zaffar Iqbal Butt

When this scribe contacted Mr Butt by telephone on Sunday, he was initially reluctant to speak about his philanthropic work, but when pressed to share details for the purpose of spurring others to follow the suit, he agreed and said whatever he had given was a peanut of what he had got from the Lord.

“It’s not my land that I have donated to different people without any charges… It’s Allah’s land and His trust to me… It was He Who guided me earn money in UK to be able to buy this land in 2004,” he said.

Mr Butt said all through his life he had not greased the palm of anyone to expedite his deals, even though sometimes he had to pay the price, apparently.

“But in the end I always came triumphant… I left everything to my Creator and He smoothed the ways for me beyond my expectations.”

Tariq Naqash 

Four protestors, three cops injured as police thwart move to intercept AJK PM's cavalcade

Four protestors were injured when police fired tear gas and launched baton charge at a mob trying to disrupt the movement of Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider’s cavalcade in Bhimber district of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) on Saturday.

Police said they were forced to use batons after the mob, affiliated with a former legislative assembly speaker from the area, attacked the convoy and resorted to stone pelting, breaking windowpanes of at least three vehicles.

The stone pelting also left three policemen slightly wounded, police claimed.

The incident occurred near Bab-e-Kashmir Bridge at about 9:30am, when Mr Haider was heading towards Samahni valley to address a political gathering on the last leg of his four-day tour to the southernmost district, most of which straddles the Line of Control.

The protest was linked with likely acquisition of land for an industrial zone under the China Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) project, even though the government has not decided exact site for it as yet. 

It may be recalled that recently the AJK government had told media that Beijing had agreed to set up an industrial zone in Bhimber district under CPEC due to the area’s proximity with GT Road.

According to officials, four different sites in district Bhimber were under consideration for the proposed industrial zone, to be spread over 8000 kanals of land.

However, around one hundred supporters of former speaker Anwaar ul Haq assembled along the route of the premier to “draw his attention towards their demands,” which included that “acquisition should not be initiated before distribution of their share in shamilat land.”

Witnesses and official sources told that officers of divisional and district administration tried to convince the protestors to avoid disrupting the movement, but to no avail.

Sources disclosed that Mr Haq wanted Mr Haider to visit his place to “allay the concerns of the people of the area,” a demand which the prime minister’s staff told him could not be met immediately due to the already scheduled engagements. 

However, the prime minister had agreed to have a meeting with a delegation anytime later.

When the cavalcade drove past the protestors, some of them tried to come in front of the premier’s staff car, but officials thwarted their bid.

Policemen trying to keep the protestors away from PM's staff car

As the PM’s vehicle moved ahead, the protestors started pelting stones on other vehicles in the cavalcade, which compelled the police to lob tear gas shells and launch baton charge to disperse them, sources said.

Nevertheless, the vehicles of principal secretary, director general PM office and press secretary to the PM were slightly damaged, they added.

In the ensuing clash between both sides, seven persons, including three cops, received minor injuries and bruises. Only one protestor had his wound stitched.

A senior police officer who spoke to this scribe on condition of anonymity said that the protestors appeared to be non-serious in dialogue on their demands.

“They just wanted to create an issue and make headlines in the media,” he remarked.

The officer said that the police and administration showed leniency towards them or else the Standard Operating Procedure (SOP) for the PM’s cavalcade demanded a strict action against troublemakers.

Police were reported to have booked several persons for creating law and order problem. 

An official spokesman said the protest appeared to settle some political score in the name of a process that was yet to be kicked off - a reference to the acquisition of land. 

It may be recalled that Mr Haq had held the office of speaker from Aug 2010 to July 2011 in a term mired in allegations of favouritism as he made more than 60 appointments of his constituents, including that of his cousin as LA secretary in BS-21, at his sole discretion.

He joined PPP in April 2011, but lost general elections in July the same year  to Chaudhry Tariq Farooq of PML. During the PPP government, he was appointed as chairman of a so-called “good governance committee” by Ms Faryal Talpur who called the shots in AJK then.

However, shortly before July 2016 elections he declined to accept PPP ticket and contested as an independent candidate, once again to be defeated by Mr Farooq, currently the senior minister in PML-N government.

At a press conference in Bhimber, Mr Haq hurled several allegations on Mr Farooq, including that he had received a share from Rs12 billion earmarked by the federal government from CPEC to establish industrial zone in Bhimber.

He added that he could produce evidence that the minister had “forged papers to receive money from the project.”

However, Mr Farooq declined to offer any comment on his allegations, saying that his electorate as well as his party leadership in Islamabad and Muzaffarabad knew well the actual cause of discomfort of his rivals.

“It’s for the first time a prime minister has held a detailed tour of Bhimber in almost a decade, has addressed and attended over a dozen public meetings and development briefings, and announced several uplift projects… This obviously has not gone well with the people who deliberately kept this district backward in the past, notwithstanding their clout,” he said.

Tariq Naqash 

NTDC asked to change power transmission line route

AJK-EPA says that the hydropower project’s line route would impact the environment

The Azad Jammu and Kashmir Environment Protection Agency (AJK-EPA) has taken strong exception to the impending loss of vegetative cover along the proposed route of transmission line of a hydropower project in view of its environmental impact on the city of Muzaffarabad. 

The agency has asked the National Transmission and Despatch Company (NTDC) to halt the process at the earliest and find some alternative route to avoid environmental degradation in the area.

The 147-megawatt Patrind hydropower project has been built by a Korean company – Star Hydropower - on build-operate-own-transfer (BOOT) basis and likely to be commissioned sometime next month.

The powerhouse is located along the right bank of River Jhelum across the Lower Chattar neighbourhood of Muzaffarabad.

On Feb 7, the EPA director general, Chief Conservator of Forests and a technical team from the NTDC had visited the project site and after detailed deliberations with experts, the EPA had informed all stakeholders in unequivocal terms that the current route proposed for power transmission was not viable in terms of environmental approach. 

According to an EPA document, addressed to NTDC and copied to top AJK government functionaries, the patch of the forest, proposed to be hacked, was in the immediate vicinity of Muzaffarabad city and contributed to its beauty, visual amenity and biodiversity (ecological) services for human beings. 

Additionally, cutting of Chir Pines in such a big number with such age and height was also bound to cause biomass loss amounting in thousands of tons, which could not be compensated in centuries, let alone years, added the document.  

View of the mountain before construction of project

view of the mountain after construction of project 

The EPA document said that the project had already caused significant erosion of green vegetation comprising large size Chir pine trees, shrubs and a miscellany of floral species. 

The magnitude of irreversible changes that the project had already made to the vegetative cover at the powerhouse site could be assessed from Google imagery, before and after its execution, it added. 

“In case the NTDC finds itself with no other option for power evacuation except hacking dense forests for the purpose, it will contribute to an irreparable environmental loss, in sheer disregard to the very concept of ‘sustainable development’ and thus impermissible by law,” the EPA document read. 

The EPA warned that in case the dense canopies of exiting fully-grown Pine trees were chopped down, landslide would occur and eventually aggravated by huge top load (spoil) and sharp gradient of the area, thus putting the sustainability and viability of the project, particularly the powerhouse, at stake. 

The EPA regretted that Star Hydropower had “unilaterally” changed the design of the project by shifting switchyard from a designated and approved site on the left bank of river to the right bank without prior intimation and approval of the agency.

The AJK Environmental Protection Act of 2000 explicitly stipulates that “no proponent of a project shall commence construction or operation unless he has filed with EPA an Initial Environmental Examination or where the project is likely to cause an adverse environmental effect, an Environmental Impact Assessment, and has obtained from the EPA approval in respect thereof.” 

Even the NTDC had neither formally informed nor applied for environmental NOC under law, or else this situation could have been averted, the EPA said. 

The EPA has maintained that the present critical state of affairs with reference to environmental adverse impacts was, ostensibly, developed as a result of ignorance of both the Star Hydropower and the NTDC, for they had not followed AJK’s environmental law in letter and in spirit.

“In order to propose a viable way forward, a committee comprising the technical experts of NTDC, Star Hydropower and AJK Forests Department should be constituted to look for the alternatives aimed at securing the natural resources in compliance of the objectives of sustainable development,” suggested the agency. 

Earlier, in response to the EPA’s concerns about the felling of Pine trees for the transmission line, the NTDC had maintained that if the latter failed to install HT line for evacuation of power by interconnecting with local grid station Muzaffarabad-II (Rampura), the Central Power Purchasing Agency (CPPA) will have to pay penalties (to the Korean company). 

When this scribe contacted EPA Director General Raja Mohammad Razzaque, he confirmed that his office had conveyed concerns to all relevant persons in the interest of environment of the area. 

Tariq Naqash