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

AJK to go to polls on July 25

 

General elections to the Legislative Assembly of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) will be held on  July 25, which happens to be a Sunday and either the third or the fourth day of Eidul Azha, region's Chief Election Commissioner (CEC), Justice retired Abdul Rashid Sulehria, announced on Thursday. 

Accompanied by Raja Farooq Niaz and Farhat Ali Mir, Senior Member and Member, respectively, of the Election Commission (EC), he asserted at a crowded press conference held in the Committee Room of New Civil Secretariat Muzaffarabad that his institution would leave no stone unturned to conduct the election process in a free, fair and impartial manner. 

"This should also lay to rest speculations or rumours that elections are being or will be delayed for any reason," the CEC said. 

Of the 45 direct seats of the Legislative Assembly, 33 are located in the AJK territory with over 2.817 million registered voters, including 1.297 million women, and 12 are located in Pakistan with 430456 registered voters, including 170931 women, he said.

The commission would try its best to seek the army's assistance to ensure law and order during elections. However, in case the army personnel are not available, civilian armed forces and paramilitary troops would be called for the purpose in addition to the AJK police personnel, responded Mr Niaz to a questioner.

Of elections in the 12 constituencies in Pakistan, he informed that the officers of the Election Commission of Pakistan would be placed at the disposal of the ECAJK to be appointed as District Returning Officers (DROs) and Returning Officers (ROs).

The AJK government and the EC would make requests to the provincial governments concerned to ensure security of polling stations and staff on the polling day, Mr Niaz added.

The CEC declared that after the announcement of the schedule the government could not make any fresh appointments or transfers or announce or execute new development schemes. 

However, in unavoidable cases it will have to seek prior permission from the EC, he said. 

When the CEC was asked if this ban also applied to ongoing regularization of scores of ad-hoc, temporary and contractual employees that the government had ordered to complete within two weeks under a recently passed controversial law, he replied in the affirmative. 

When another reporter repeated a similar question for the sake of clarity, Mr Niaz reiterated that the EC would not allow any appointment. 

“We hope the government will respect this ban and stop appointments,” the EC senior member said. 

SCHEDULE

According to the schedule, nomination papers will be filed by the candidates before the ROs on or before June 21 till 4pm. But before filing their papers, the candidates will be required to submit details of their moveable and immoveable assets and income and obtain its receipt from the commission. 

Scrutiny of nominations will be conducted on the following day from 8am onward and lists of validly nominated candidates will be published by the ROs the same evening.

Aggrieved persons could file appeals against the acceptance or rejection of nomination papers by the ROs before the ECAJK by 2pm on June 27 and the hearings of appeals will be held on June 28-29 while decisions will be announced on June 30 and July 1.

Candidates could withdraw their nominations by July 2, and lists of contesting candidates will be published on the following day. 

Election symbols to the parties and candidates will be allotted on July 4 before 2pm and the final list of contesting candidates with election symbols will be published on the same day while polling will be held on July 25 from 8am to 5pm.

The CEC also unveiled a 16 page ‘code of conduct’ for the political parties, candidates and their polling agents, envisaging strict adherence to the legal and constitutional requirements and other guidelines. 

Reading out some important points, Mr Sulehria made it clear that no candidate, including the AJK premier, speaker, deputy speaker and ministers, would be allowed to use official resources, particularly official vehicles, for election campaign or else they could be disqualified from contesting elections and the vehicle concerned would be confiscated.

This condition would also apply to the visiting government functionaries from Pakistan, including the prime minister of Pakistan, federal ministers, advisers and special assistants, he declared.

When a reporter drew the CEC's attention towards the fact that each of the former AJK presidents and prime ministers was entitled to an official vehicle and 400 litres fuel or its cost per month, he and members “expressed the hope” that these leaders would not use the same for electioneering.

In view of the Covid-19 situation, big public gatherings and processions had also been banned. However, each candidate could hold one public meeting with prior approval of date, time and place from the deputy commissioner concerned as well as with strict adherence to the SOPs, the CEC said.  

He said expenditures by the candidates on electioneering should not exceed Rs 5 million each, including those expenses not directly made by them but by their political party or agents on their campaign. 

There would be a complete ban on display of large hoardings, billboards and panaflex posters as well as wall chalking, the CEC said, warning that violations would be taken as an unlawful activity.  

The CEC expressed the hope that all political parties would avoid personal attacks or any such thing that ran the risk of vitiating the peaceful atmosphere of the region. 

When a reporter asked that since senior member Mr Niaz was closely related to Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider and he had lately given premature retirement to Mr Mir for his present assignment, how could be guaranteed that they would not show a tilt towards the ruling PML-N, the CEC maintained that both were "men of above board integrity and credibility." 

On this, a visibly irked Mr Mir stated that theirs were constitutionally protected positions and they would not violate their oath. 

"Rest assured we will do whatever the law and Constitution demands from us," he said. 

He urged the media to support and facilitate ECAJK in discharge of its duties.

Tariq Naqash

Students, civil society activists up in arms about 'controversial' regulation law

  

Hundreds of students and other civil society activists took to a main thoroughfare here on Wednesday to voice their anger against a recently enacted piece of law regularizing a hitherto unspecified number of ad-hoc, contractual and temporary government employees from BS-1 to BS-18.  

The demonstrators who included around 150 women were holding banners and placards inscribed with different slogans, many written with a tinge of sarcasm directed at Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider and his government, initially assembled at an open space along the bustling Bank Road where through they later paraded up to the press club. 

“Hum nahi maantay, zulm k ye zaabtay (We will not bow to the cruel regulations),” was the frequently raised chant in addition to “Down with the incompetent government and the assembly” by the demonstrators. 

Some of the women had also brought their minor kids to the protest. 

On May 31, the AJK Legislative Assembly had got enacted the AJK Regulation of the Service of Certain Categories of Contractual, Ad-hoc or Temporary Government Employment (Terms and Conditions) Act, 2021 at the strength of its majority. 

The opposition Peoples Party (PPP), one of whose four lawmakers is also occupying the office of the Leader of the Opposition in the AJK Assembly, as well as Muslim Conference (MC), another constituent of the combined opposition, avoided to attend the session allegedly to give a walk over to the government. 

However, the only three opposition members in attendance - Sardar Hassan Ibrahim of Jammu Kashmir Peoples Party (JKPP) and Abdul Majid Khan and Deevan Ghulam Mohiuddin of the PTI, objected to the passage of the “controversial” bill and called for its withdrawal.

On seeing no signs of acceptance of their demand, they had staged a walkout from the house. 

Two members of Jamaat-e-Islami, one of whom had earlier expressed reservations about the bill, however did not join the trio, allowing the government to claim that the bill had been passed unanimously. 

Earlier, Mr Ibrahim had also written a strongly worded dissenting note on the bill as one of the two members of the concerned select committee. 

The bill, which got assent from the President on Wednesday, is alleged to be reminiscent of an identical piece of legislation by Sardar Abdul Qayyum Khan led MC government in 1992 whereby around 480 persons were inducted as gazetted officers without any competitive exams. The law was later struck down by the AJK courts. 

In their speeches outside the press club, many demonstrators also referred to the 1992 legislation and said the new law was bound to meet the same fate. 

“This is a cruel and unjust piece of legislation whereby the government has regularized those who had either failed in previous competitive exams or had been evading it after recruitment on the basis of their political connections,” maintained Urooj Younas, a student. 

“Allah willing, we will collectively challenge and get it repealed from the superior courts,” she vowed. 

Faisal Khokhar, another student, said it was ironic that this law had been enacted by PM Haider despite the fact he had been blowing his own trumpet about the introduction of NTS by his government for recruitment of primary and junior teachers.  

Shahid Awan, one of the organisers, said civil society would fully support students in their legitimate struggle for annulment of the 'discriminatory law.'

The social media was also replete with comments pouring scorn on the move. 

"The hue and cry raised by the PML-N government over a mere suggestion by NCOC to postpone the upcoming AJK polls in view of Covid-19 pandemic was in fact aimed at diverting attention from the worst ever slaughter of fundamental human rights, justice and merit” on its part in collusion with the PPP,” wrote Raja Amjad Ali Khan, a renowned lawyer and human rights activist, in a social media post.  

Tariq Naqash

When it's Kashmir, think before you speak: Haider to PM, FM

 Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider has advised the prime minister and foreign minister of Pakistan "not to issue any statement on Kashmir without proper analysis of its pros and cons." 

 “Kashmir is a very sensitive issue and anything that can dishearten or agonize the struggling Kashmiris should be avoided at all costs,” he said at a function held here on Friday to mark the martyrdom anniversaries of Mirwaiz Muhammad Farooq and Abdul Ghani Lone.

He was alluding to a recent alleged statement of the foreign minister Shah Mahmood Qureshi on Article 370 of Indian Constitution that had created quite a stir in Kashmir, apart from India and Pakistan.

“As far as the PML-N is concerned, from Mian Nawaz Sharif to a grassroots level worker, we will continue to fulfill our responsibilities in this regard and we hope the same from other parties,” Haider said. 

Paying tributes to the late Mirwaiz and Mr Lone and other martyrs, he said the sacrifices offered by the Kashmiris to actualize their dream of freedom would not go in vain.

Haider stressed that Kashmir was an indivisible entity and no decision on its fate could be made without the consultation and consent of the Kashmiris. 

“I want to make it clear that the liberated part of Kashmir [AJK] cannot be converted into a province until the final settlement of the Kashmir dispute in accordance with the wishes of Kashmiri people. We will thwart every conspiracy aimed at division of our motherland,” he said. 

He said while there was no ideological friction among the freedom seeking Kashmiris in the India occupied territory, the people in the liberated territory were faced with ideological differences even though the right to self determination was a common demand of every Kashmiri. 

Haider asserted that the Kashmiris had linked their fate with Pakistan even before its creation and more than 75 years down the line there had been no change in their resolve.

“We can have differences with the government(s) of Pakistan but not with the people of Pakistan who have stood by us like a solid rock for the past 73 years,” he said. 

Separately, AJK President Sardar Masood Khan also paid tributes to Mirwaiz Farooq, Ghani Lone and other Kashmiri freedom fighters on their martyrdom anniversary.

In a statement, he reiterated his unflinching resolve that the struggle to get freedom from the oppressive Indian occupation and the realization of the right to self-determination would continue relentlessly and the mission left incomplete by Kashmiri martyrs would be accomplished.

“We vow to carry forward the mission of Kashmiri martyrs who offered supreme sacrifice of their lives to get rid of the oppressive foreign rule,” he asserted.

Describing Mirwaiz  Farooq and Ghani Lone as robust voices of the Kashmir freedom struggle that were targeted by the oppressor to weaken the liberation struggle, Khan said that their supreme sacrifices instead gave a new lease of life to the struggle for the right to self determination.

The intensity of the long struggle of the Kashmiris for freedom that has withstood decades of suppression and has grown stronger neither will reduce nor killings, arbitrary detentions, torture, and other brute tactics can dampen the spirit of freedom, he said.

The AJK President assured that the people of Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Pakistan will continue to extend political and diplomatic support to the struggling people of Jammu and Kashmir and they will not be left alone in their fight for freedom and liberty.

Later, after Friday prayers, the AJK premier also led a rally in Upper Adda to express solidarity with the oppressed people of Palestine and occupied Kashmir.

He called upon the Organisation of Islamic Conference (OIC) to play a lead role in safeguarding Bait-ul-Muqadas and the rights of the oppressed Palestinian and Kashmiri people.

Tariq Naqash 

Justice Shiraz Kiani passes away, leaving High Court with only one judge

 

Justice Muhammad Shiraz Kiani, senior most judge of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) High Court, passed away in an Islamabad hospital on Monday morning of brain paralysis after more than a month long hospitalisation, leaving the court with only one judge against its sanctioned strength of nine. 

Born in August 1965 in Ratta village of Mirpur district, Justice Kiani had joined judicial services as a civil judge in October 1995 and was elevated to the bench of the High Court in September 2015 “on account of his lengthy and meritorious service in the subordinate Judiciary,” according to the court’s website. 

On March 19 this year, AJK president had appointed him as acting chief justice to assume the office after the retirement of his predecessor Justice Azhar Saleem Babar on March 22. 

He took the oath of office on March 24 in Kashmir House Islamabad, a day before he was hospitalized there for treatment in the wake of a multitude of medical conditions.

On Sunday night he suffered brain paralysis that took his life within 12 hours, according to family sources. 

Mr Kiani will be laid to rest in his ancestral town of Dadyal after the funeral prayer at 11am on Tuesday, they said.

His sudden death plunged not only the legal fraternity in gloom but also people from all walks of life as he enjoyed the reputation of a thorough professional without any slightest political leanings.

Social media was flooded with condolence messages from across the state as well as from the Kashmiri diaspora members. 

“From subordinate to superior judiciary, Justice Muhammad Shiraz Kiani remained a celebrated jurist with invaluable services for dispensation of justice to all and sundry. His untimely death is an irreparable loss in [the] true sense of words…” wrote AJK Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider on Twitter.

 “Today is a very sad day for me and all of us. Justice Shiraz Kiani has left us. In March, he was sworn in as Acting Chief Justice of AJK High Court. A soft-spoken professional known for humility and justness left for his eternal abode...” tweeted AJK President Sardar Masood Khan. 

AJK SUPERIOR COURTS SHORT OF JUDGES

While Justice Kiani was unable to perform his functions due to illness, Justice Sadaqat Hussain Raja, the next senior judge, was appointed as acting CJ on April 17 till the former resumed his responsibilities.

It may be relevant to recall that since November 2019, the AJK High Court has seen removal of six judges due to flaws in the process of their appointment. 

On Nov 15, 2019, the then CJ M Tabassum Aftab Alvi was the first of the six judges to go and ever since the High Court is being run by an acting CJ, firstly by Justice Azhar Saleem Babar and late by Justice Kiani. 

After the demise of Justice Kiani, the AJK High Court has now been left with only one judge – acting CJ Sadaqat Hussain Raja - against its sanctioned strength of nine. 

On the other hand, the AJK Supreme Court is also working with only one judge – acting chief justice Raja Saeed Akram Khan – since December last year against its sanctioned strength of three. 

Under Article 42(4) of the AJK Constitution, AJK President appoints the Supreme Court CJ on the advice of the AJK Council chairman – Prime Minister of Pakistan - and under Article 43(2-A) the High Court CJ is appointed by the President on the advice of the AJK Council and after consultation with the apex court’s CJ.

Each of the other judges of both courts is appointed by the president on the advice of the chairman council after consultation with the chief justice(s). 

Due to the non-appointment of the permanent CJs, the process for the appointment of judges in both courts has been in limbo since long, triggering a serious judicial crisis in the territory. 

A number of submissions or ‘warnings’ in black and white, protest demonstrations and other peaceful measures by the AJK’s legal fraternity have failed to press the AJK Council chairman to appoint permanent CJs which subsequently has been obstructing the process for appointment against the vacant posts of judges. 

15th CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENT TO RESOLVE CRISIS

It was in the wake of the very “inaction” on the part of the prime minister of Pakistan the AJK government was said to have decided to introduce 15^th constitutional amendment to reclaim the authority to appoint judges from the AJK council chairman.

“We will discuss and approve the 15th amendment bill in the cabinet meeting and table the same in the Legislative Assembly session on Tuesday,” a cabinet minister told this scribe on Monday evening, moments before the cabinet meeting in Kashmir House, with Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider in the chair. 

The minister, who did not want to be identified, claimed that the move was taken in consultation with the central government “for a specified period” to address the ongoing judicial crisis. 

A press release issued by Raja Muhammad Wasim, press secretary to Prime Minister Haider, after the meeting stated that the cabinet had consented to an “interim procedure to address the issues arising out of the judicial crisis by making appointment of permanent CJs and judges for a period of two months.” 

However, late night developments suggested that the exercise had been shelved following reservations either by the central government or the powers that be. 

Tariq Naqash

'Kashmiris asked to "categorically and unanimously" reject bilateral talks on Kashmir'

  

Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Prime Minister Raja Farooq Haider has asked the Kashmiris to “categorically and unanimously” reject bilateral talks between Pakistan and India on the issue of Kashmir “because any exercise sans their involvement, as primary party to the dispute, will as usual end up in futility.” 

“It’s we who will decide the future of this state, including Gilgit-Baltistan (GB),” he said in his hard-hitting speech at a function held in Muzaffarabad on Thursday to mark the 33^rd death anniversary function of revered Kashmiri leader K H Khurshid, who had died in a road accident on March 11, 1988 while travelling in public transport to Lahore. 

K H Khurshid was just 20 years old when Quaid-e-Azam Muhammad Ali Jinnah anticipated his abilities during a visit to Srinagar in 1944 and chose him as his private secretary, a position he held till the death of the founder of Pakistan.

On May 1, 1959, Mr Khurshid was appointed by President Ayub Khan as AJK President, an office he accepted on the insistence of Fatima Jinnah who treated him as her son and had also financially supported him to earn the bar-at-law degree from UK’s prestigious Lincoln’s Inn.

In 1961, Mr Khurshid conducted the first ever (basic democracy) elections in AJK and also won the presidential election.

In the following year, he launched Jammu Kashmir Liberation League (JKLL) with the ideology of recognition of the AJK government as a ‘revolutionary provisional successor government’ of deposed Dogra ruler of Jammu and Kashmir with a freehand to take the freedom movement to its logical end while launching JKLL.

However, the ideology was opposed by his narrow-minded power-hungry opponents through a constant smear campaign which made many in the power corridors of Pakistan believe that he was averse to Kashmir’s merger with Pakistan

Alluding to the very opposition of Mr Khurshid, Mr Haider read out the late leader’s quote regarding the role of the government in Muzaffarabad from a banner displayed at the venue of the death anniversary function and said: “What was his fault? He had not killed anyone. It was his ideology, which was misconstrued, unfortunately…” 

 “How could a person who was the private secretary to the founder of Pakistan and [later] chief polling agent of his sister for West Pakistan be against Pakistan,” he added in the same breath.  

Mr Haider who claimed during his speech that he had dedicated himself to “freedom of India occupied Kashmir and identity, integrity, honour and authority of AJK,” mocked claims by some “new historians” that the Mirs of Hunza and Nagar [in GB] had already acceded to Pakistan.

“History should not be distorted,” he said, and added: “Then how can you question the legitimacy of the alleged instrument of accession attributed to the Maharaja of Jammu and Kashmir who was the constitutional head of the erstwhile princely state while these (Mirs) were just fiefs under him.”  

The AJK premier went on to warn that conversion of GB into a province of Pakistan would be a direct and indirect endorsement of India’s Aug 5, 2019 move. 

Terming the forthcoming AJK polls as crucial, he asked people to mindfully cast their vote in favour of the party that could protect AJK’s identity and status. 

Claiming that he had snubbed a suggestion to remove the word ‘Azad’ from AJK, he reiterated that as long as AJK remained in existence, no one would dare wind up Kashmir issue without its settlement.

He said some AJK leaders had emerged with calls for grant of provincial status to AJK in the name of its development. 

“Go and ask Balochistan as to how much development was done there after it was made a province. Soon, the people of Gilgit-Baltistan will also wake up to reality… Development will continue to take place, but what matters more is your political freedom and authority,” he said.   

Stating that the Joe Biden administration was more dangerous for Pakistan than that of its predecessor because Indians enjoyed more influence over the Democrats, the AJK premier urged the government of Pakistan “not to fall prey to the American conspiracy out of weakness.”

“Pakistan should stay firm on its stand on Kashmir, particularly after India’s Aug 5 move. Don’t be afraid. No one is going to do you any harm except political instability and economic downturn,” he said.

Underlining the need for political harmony in Pakistan, he said: “No single party can bring this country out of the crisis; each one will have to put its share in this regard.” 

He pointed out that there was no ideological divide among the Kashmiris on the other side of the divide but in AJK people would come up with different slogans. 

“This is India’s plot to divide us ideologically. The right to self-determination should be our common demand and in order to achieve this right, you will have to ensure a special status of Azad Kashmir and present a Kashmiri face before the world community. Unless that happens, there cannot be any way forward.”

“Yes if you want to wind up this issue then it’s another thing. But whosoever will deceive the Kashmiris will invite the wrath of the Allah Almighty.” 

Referring to a statement by an opposition PTI AJK chapter leader, he said they were not speaking about the real issues for fear of anger of their masters. 

“Why don’t they speak against bilateral talks or conversion of Gilgit-Baltistan into a province? Why don’t they speak for the distinctiveness of Azad Kashmir as well as preservation of the 13^thconstitutional amendment that empowered the government in Muzaffarabad?”

 Apart from Mr Haider, JKLL president Manzoor Qadir advocate, Jamaat-i-Islami leader Shaikh Aqeelur Rehman and others also spoke on the occasion.  

Earlier, Mr Haider and others offered fateha khawani at the grave of Mr Khurshid and also showered rose petals on it. 

Tariq Naqash