Off the Greek coast: Rat race drives people from Azad Kashmir to take the dangerous plunge

 In a rural area called Khuiratta, not far from Pakistan’s heavily militarised de facto border with India, people are reckoning with a tragedy and searching for answers. 

Khuiratta, named after a spring over which Muslims and Hindus fought during the time of the British Raj and currently part of Pakistan-administered Kashmir, is home to several villages perched on rolling green mountains peppered with waterfalls and springs, white-domed mosques and red, blue and purple flowers that dot the landscape every spring. 

Marble-tiled houses with large courtyards and imported cars are a common sight here. The fortunate owners of these homes and vehicles have purchased these luxuries from the money they made working in England, Italy and other European and Gulf countries. 

Real-estate prices in this agrarian region are comparable to those of Islamabad, Pakistan’s capital, located some 150km away, indicating how property values have risen as a result of the investments made by expats. 

However, Khuiratta is in mourning. Dozens of its residents were onboard an overcrowded fishing trawler that sank off the coast of Greece, causing hundreds of migrants and refugees to drown on June 14. 

The boat capsized near the Greek coastal town of Pylos while on its way to Italy from Libya. It was believed to be carrying more than 700 passengers from Pakistan, Syria and Egypt. Only 104 survived. 

Pakistani authorities have so far confirmed the deaths of 81 citizens. But they fear there were more than 300 Pakistani nationals on the ill-fated vessel. Among the victims who have been identified, 28 were from Khuiratta. 

A history of migration

Located in the district of Kotli, Khuiratta is part of Pakistan-administered Kashmir’s southern Mirpur division, which has come to be known as 'Little England'. 

Since the 1960s, hundreds of thousands of people from the Mirpur division have migrated to the UK. The first generation consisted mostly of those who were displaced from their villages after the construction of Mangla dam. 

While official statistics are unavailable, estimates suggest that there are close to 1 million expatriates living in the UK who maintain properties and close ties with family members in Pakistan. 

“When the expats visit home, they zoom around in big jeeps, go on wild shopping sprees and spend lavishly. When their neighbours watch this sort of lifestyle, they also crave for foreign shores,” says Imran Maqsood, a lawyer from Khuiratta. 

“It’s a rat race. If 10 men from one village have gone and settled in Europe, then the 11th one wants to follow them." 

However, lack of education and absence of sufficient skills means that aspiring migrants have little chance of landing a job in Europe via legal channels — and with human traffickers charging up to Rs2.7 million (around $9,450) to smuggle one person to Italy, it costs the average migrant eight years’ worth of minimum annual wage in Pakistan to make the perilous journey. 

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Even in villages, people have built multistorey houses from the money they had earned working in the UK, Europe and the Gulf countries.

“A notional perception of prosperity and better quality of life in Europe has pushed young people to take a plunge into the misadventure of this illegal odyssey,” says Naila Altaf Kayani, a political analyst based in Muzaffarabad, Pakistani Kashmir’s capital. 

“Unfortunately, while our ruling elite undertake foreign trips religiously, they have never taken serious steps to develop a human resource that is genuinely required and welcomed in Europe.” 

A story of many reasons

On almost every street corner in Kotli, there’s a story to be heard of a son or cousin or friend who has either perished or successfully crossed the Mediterranean Sea, which has become a mass graveyard for thousands of migrants and refugees. 

At a state-run hospital in Khuiratta, relatives are trickling in for DNA profiling as part of a process to identify the victims of the latest tragedy. Among them was Muhammad Sadiq, 75, whose 30-year-old son Sajid is among the missing and presumed dead. 

Sajid flew to Libya almost a year ago, but before he could take the hazardous boat journey to Italy, he was arrested for attempting to travel illegally and was subsequently jailed for several months. Then, in early June, he sent a WhatsApp message to his father saying he would finally board a boat heading to Italian shores. 

“Then there was no news from him and we saw his name on the list of those who have drowned,” says his father. 

Sajid, who had paid an agent more than Rs2 million (almost $7,000) to cross into Europe, was not driven to take drastic measures due to poverty — at least not by Pakistani standards. He owned a small mobile phone shop and drove a Toyota sedan. Yet he aspired for more. 

Conflicts, persecution and economic upheaval in countries like Syria, Afghanistan, Libya, Myanmar, Ukraine and Venezuela have displaced tens of millions of people from their homes, forcing many of them to undertake dangerous journeys across borders, according to the UN and other human rights organisations. 

While many in Pakistan grapple with extreme poverty, even Pakistanis with a viable income like Sajid are facing a cost of living crisis, with inflation running at a record high and a government struggling to fix foreign exchange rates to repay its debt. 

On the Pakistani side of Kashmir, which has a population of 4.5 million, the biggest source of employment is the public sector. But government jobs often only go to those with strong political connections, leaving others struggling to find a decent income. 

And while Khuiratta might have pockets of land where real estate value is on par with Islamabad and where a few villagers have plenty of cash to spend, stories of financial loss and desperation are not uncommon. 

Hameed Iqbal, 46, is another victim of the June 14 boat tragedy in Greece. Iqbal was a resident of Seri Chattar village and a father of five. 

Iqbal used to have a job in Saudi Arabia that helped him earn enough to support his family. But in 2020, during the pandemic, he visited his ailing mother. Soon after, a travel ban was imposed and he lost his job. 

He opened a small restaurant, but after losses piled up, he shut it down. An ‘agent’ — as traffickers are locally referred to — offered Iqbal a way out: an illegal boat crossing into Italy at a cost of Rs2.3 million ($8,100).

Before it became difficult to cross over into Europe due to increasingly stringent border control, illegal migrants from Pakistan and Afghanistan would take the treacherous land route via Iran and Türkiye. 

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Saeed Hameed thought it would be a quick journey for his father who was trying to reach Italy illegally. He's now waiting for DNA results to identify his body.

With crossings becoming more challenging in recent years, traffickers had to change tactics: They now fly migrants to Libya and then shove them onto rickety boats destined for Italy. 

“Going to Europe on a ‘Danki’ (a small boat) seemed easy. The agents assured papa that he will be in Libya in a month’s time,” says Iqbal’s 21-year-old son, Saeed Hameed. 

Iqbal said his goodbyes and left for Libya on April 28 to never return. 

Stuck in Libya 

Pakistan police have arrested more than a dozen suspects accused of running the trafficking network responsible for this latest incident. This includes one of the network’s ringleaders, Sajid Mahmood Warraich, who was apprehended at the Karachi airport on June 17, says Dr Khalid Mahmood Chauhan, a senior police officer from Mirpur. 

“We need to work on our laws. They are not good enough to stop the traffickers,” he tells TRT World. 

Over the years, human smugglers have built a sophisticated network stretching from rural villages in Pakistan to handlers active along the Libyan coast. They have devised informal ways to receive payments and to share cuts of the profits along the route. There are even people on their payroll who actively sell the idea of a ‘good Italian life’ to young men. 

“They look for men who can be easily moulded. Once the victim is convinced, they tell him there’s no longer space on the group and he’d have to find more people who join him if he wants to make it to Italy,” says Adeeb Zafar, a local councillor. 

This Ponzi scheme-like way of cultivating a group of ‘migrants’ has destroyed many families. 

“I know a boy who sold his land to meet their demand, and is now languishing in a Libyan jail,” says Zafar. 

Local officials fear a bigger humanitarian disaster is impending in the prisons of Libya, where migrants are at the mercy of human traffickers who withhold their passports and other travel documents, making it nearly impossible for them to get out without paying a ransom. 

Just a week before the migrant boat tragedy, Muhammad Habib, a 27-year-old man from Taniyot village in Khuiratta, died under mysterious circumstances in a Libyan prison in the port city of Tobruk.

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Hundreds of illegal migrants languishing in Libyan jails and residents fear they can end up dead like Habib.

He was among hundreds of Pakistanis from Khuiratta who have been languishing in Libyan prisons for making attempts to cross the Mediterranean and enter Italy.

Once in Libya, the migrants are often asked to cough up thousands of dollars in extra payments if they want to get out of the prisons and continue their onward journeys to Italy. 

“I have spoken to some 20 people stuck in Libyan prisons. I have also gotten in touch with the families of many more. They are locked up in pathetic places where they don't get proper food, water or medical treatment,” says Rafique Nayyar, a local politician and member of Kashmir’s Legislative Assembly. 

Back home in the villages of Khuiratta, families are far from finding closure. 

“He was an intelligent and hardworking boy. I told him not to risk his life. This desire to go to Italy has ruined so many of our people,” Sajid’s father Sadiq tells TRT World, fighting back tears. 

TARIQ NAQASH

THIS STORY FIRST APPEARED AT TRT WORLD

Amid budget deficit, AJK PM inducts 'army of ministers'

            

Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Prime Minister Chaudhry Anwarul Haq on Sunday inducted 27 more members in his cabinet which comprised only two ministers since the installation of his government more than two months ago.

The formation of the huge cabinet, which would be followed by appointments of at least four advisers/special assistants with the status of minister, comes less than a week after his government passed a Rs 232 billion budget with a staggering Rs 42 billion deficit. 

The new ministers were administered oath by President Barrister Sultan Mahmood at the new PM House in the presence of PM Haq, Legislative Assembly Speaker Chaudhry Latif Akbar and a sizable number of political activists.

Haq had appointed Waqar Ahmed Noor of PML-N and Raja Faisal Rathore of PPP as ministers without portfolio hours after assuming the office on April 20 at the head of a coalition government, comprising his strong group of PTI renegades and previously opposition PPP and PML-N parties. 

However, since a constitutional provision, which was introduced by the PML-N government in June 2018 but came in effect after the installation of the new assembly in August 2021, restricted the size of the cabinet to 16 ministers, Haq had put its expansion on hold until doing away with that barrier.  

His efforts suffered a blow in the beginning when the seven-member PML-N parliamentary party was directed by its London based leader Nawaz Sharif not to vote for the constitutional amendment. However, an undeterred Haq, who enjoys the blessings of the powers that be, managed to convince the PM Shehbaz Sharif to withdraw the decision and eventually omitted the provision on June 3 by 40 votes as against the required 36 in the 53-member house. 

Yet, Haq dragged out the cabinet expansion for another three weeks until the approval of the budget by the Legislative Assembly in a single day (on June 21) by suspending the relevant rules. 

Those who were administered oath on Sunday included Sardar Muhammad Hussain, Faheem Akhtar Rabbani, Sardar Mir Akbar, Deewan Ali Chughtai, Chaudhry Muhammad Rasheed, Chaudhry Azhar Sadiq, Chaudhry Arshad Hussain, Chaudhry Yasir Sultan, Nisar Ansar Abdali, Chaudhry Akhlaq, Zafar Iqbal Malik, Abdul Majid Khan, Chaudhry Akbar Ibrahim, Akmal Sargala, Javed Butt and Asim Sharif from the PTI renegades, Mian Abdul Waheed, Syed Bazil Ali Naqvi, Sardar Javed Ayub, Javed Iqbal Budhanvi, Chaudhry Amir Yasin, Chaudhry Qasim Majeed, Sardar Ziaul Qamar and Aamir Abdul Ghaffar Lone from the PPP, and Sardar Amir Altaf, Ahmad Raza Qadri from Raja Muhammad Siddique from the PML-N. 

Immediately, their portfolios were not announced either.

Credible sources claimed that the PM would linger on the allotment for some weeks because the “needy outnumbered the remedy.”

“While most legislators in the PM’s group are aspiring for the previously held portfolios, coalition partners PPP and PML-N have also their own demands in this regard, due to which this tricky matter will take time,” the source asserted. 

Following the cabinet expansion, three lawmakers each from PPP, PML-N and PTI renegades, including those elected against reserved seats, were left without any flag-wielding position. 

Of them, the directly elected four - PML-N regional president Shah Ghulam Qadir and his predecessor and ex PM Raja Farooq Haider and PPP president Chaudhry Yasin and senior PPP leader and ex-president Sardar Yaqoob Khan - were unlikely to accept any position in the government. 

It may be recalled that PTI defector Mazhar Saeed MLA has already been holding the office of chairman PM’s Inspection and Implementation Commission. 

On Sunday, the prime minister increased the perks and privileges of his office on a par with a minister with retrospective effect from March 6, 2023. 

Of the remaining five – all women - four were likely to be appointed as advisers and special assistants. However, their notification was held in abeyance, for the time being, reportedly after one of them had declined to accept this position. 

Meanwhile, formation of the “heavy weight” cabinet was greeted with scathing criticism by civil society activists on social media, with a tinge of sarcasm.

“Our hospitals are without medicines, schools are without equipment and people are on roads over wheat flour crises, but the indifferent government is raising an army of ministers as if it has to wage a war with India for liberation of Kashmir,” wrote one netizen. 

It may be recalled that the size of the cabinet in the previous PML-N government was 26 in the 49-member house.  
Tariq Naqash

 

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