Thousands attend JAAC rally as group inaugurates central secretariat in Rawalakot

The Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) marked its third foundation day on Saturday by inaugurating its central secretariat in Rawalakot and holding a massive public rally that drew thousands of participants, according to witnesses.

The secretariat was inaugurated in Supply Bazaar by two young children — Ehsam Ansar and Aashir Anwar, sons of the late Muhammad Ansar of Chamyati — along with Sardar Tariq Mahmood of Hajira. The site holds symbolic significance for the movement, as it was from there that a sit-in against an alleged wheat flour shortage and inflated electricity bills had begun in May 2023, eventually evolving into a state-wide rights movement.

The three belonged to families of activists who lost their lives during protests linked to the movement. Muhammad Ansar was killed in Chamyati (Dhirkot) during the long march staged last year, while Mr Mahmood’s son, Haseeb Tariq, was killed during a similar protest in Mirpur in October last year while working at a private hotel.

Following the inauguration, participants took out a procession from Supply Bazaar that marched nearly two kilometres through the city’s main thoroughfare before reaching Bank Road, where arrangements for the main public meeting had been made near Maqbool Butt Shaheed Chowk.

The main road had remained closed to traffic overnight between Friday and Saturday, with barricades erected and tents and chairs set up along both sides of the route.

Thousands of participants carrying Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) flags chanted slogans demanding “right to governance” and “right to ownership”. The rally was led by JAAC’s core leadership, with representatives attending from across the state.

In a show of solidarity, traders in Rawalakot kept their shops closed, though vehicular traffic continued through alternate routes.

The public meeting began in the evening, with organisers repeatedly playing songs and anthems to energise participants. Although no police personnel were visibly deployed at the venue, the administration said stringent security arrangements had been put in place.

In their speeches, some early speakers suggested that the movement would not participate in elections under the existing political system.

As many as 17 core JAAC members from across AJK attended the gathering, including Shaukat Nawaz Mir, Anjum Zaman Awan, Mujtaba Banday, Khawaja Mehran, Saad Ansari, Chaudhry Aslam, Imtiaz Aslam, Chaudhry Shabbir, Raja Mujtaba, Umar Nazir Kashmiri, Iftikhar Zaman, Abid Shaheen, Mujtaba Farooqui, Murtaza Sharif, Sardar Shabbir and Khan Ilyas, besides dozens of local leaders.

The public meeting was continuing till late in the evening, and no prominent core leader had addressed the gathering by the time this report was filed at 9:30pm.

Tariq Naqash

AJK Election Commission claims 90pc errors in voter lists rectified

The Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Election Commission on Saturday claimed that around 90pc of discrepancies in electoral rolls had been rectified and announced that the election schedule would be issued in mid-May. 

The assurance came during a high-level meeting chaired by Chief Election Commissioner (CEC) retired Justice Ghulam Mustafa Mughal at Jammu and Kashmir House in Islamabad. It was attended by Election Commission member Syed Nazeerul Hassan Gillani, Senior Member Board of Revenue (SMBR) Sardar Mohammad Zafar Khan, commissioners, deputy commissioners and other officials. 

Deputy Commissioner Bagh Asim Khalid Awan, who heads a committee formed to rectify errors in voter lists, briefed the meeting on progress made in correcting discrepancies that had triggered widespread public concern and criticism from political circles. 

Officials informed the meeting that about 90pc of the correction work had been completed and the remaining issues would be resolved within the next few days. 

Addressing participants, Justice Mughal stressed that transparent electoral rolls were essential for ensuring free, fair and impartial elections. He appreciated the administration’s efforts and said the preparation and updating of voter lists should become a year-round exercise in future. 

The CEC said public concern over the discrepancies was understandable, but stressed that future safeguards were needed to prevent recurrence of such problems.

He also claimed that some individuals had established “labs” to prepare identity cards and pressure the administration into registering votes. He suggested that new voters should be included to avoid further complications, while the committee concerned could take decisions according to circumstances.

He also underlined the need for fixing responsibility through a proper report on the issue.

The CEC announced that the election schedule for the forthcoming polls would be issued in mid-May.

Election Commission member Gillani thanked the administration for assisting the electoral process and said flaws in the voter lists had largely been addressed through coordinated efforts led by the Deputy Commissioner Bagh.

The SMBR termed the Election Commission’s confidence in the administration “an honour” and expressed hope that the irregularities would not recur in future. 

During the briefing, Mr Awan said discrepancies had emerged during data entry and processing of electoral rolls for the 2026 elections, resulting in the omission of around 167,000 voters from the updated data. 

He said the 2022 electoral rolls had been used as the baseline, while deceased voters were removed and records of married women updated. However, technical and sequencing issues during data integration with Nadra led to errors across several districts.

He said officials discovered during scrutiny that fresh entries from some areas had failed to appear in the system, while data from certain constituencies had been shifted to other districts because of technical and filtering issues during processing. 

According to Mr Awan, reports from Poonch, Palandri, Bagh and Muzaffarabad had been completed, while work in Mirpur, Bhimber, Neelum and Haveli was nearing completion. 

The meeting was informed that the electoral rolls contained around 2.85 million voters. Officials said nearly 100,000 voters had died since the previous rolls were prepared, while around 500,000 new voters had been added. However, about 167,000 of the fresh entries failed to appear in the updated data due to technical problems, triggering the controversy over the lists.

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APHC holds rally marking anniversary of ‘Bunyan-un-Marsoos’

A rally organised by the All Parties Hurriyat Conference (APHC) was held here on Saturday to mark the first anniversary of Pakistan’s “victory” in “Operation Bunyan-un-Marsoos”.

The rally, attended by acting AJK president Chaudhry Latif Akbar, APHC convener Ghulam Mohammad Safi, former convener Mahmood Ahmad Saghar, secretary general Advocate Parvez Ahmad, AJK premier’s spokesperson Shaukat Javed Mir, and people from different walks of life, started from Burhan Wani Chowk and culminated at Garhi Pan Chowk.

Participants, including women, carried Pakistani flags and chanted slogans in favour of Pakistan and its armed forces. They also paid tribute to Chief of Army Staff Field Marshal Gen Asim Munir and Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif.

Addressing the rally, Mr Akbar praised the courage and bravery of Pakistan’s armed forces and said the gathering reflected Kashmiris’ “unwavering attachment” to Pakistan. He said a strong and stable Pakistan was the guarantor of Kashmiris’ freedom and reiterated that Kashmiris would continue their struggle until achieving their right to self-determination.

He maintained that India’s arrogance had been crushed in the “battle of truth”, while the morale of Kashmiris remained high. He also said the people of occupied Kashmir shared Pakistan’s happiness and appreciated Islamabad’s continued support for Kashmiris’ right to self-determination. 

APHC convener Safi said the rally was organised to thank Allah for Pakistan’s success against arch-rival India. He said the event conveyed a message to the world, particularly India, that the people of Jammu and Kashmir stood with Pakistan.

He said Pakistan and Kashmir were inseparable and attempts to distance Kashmiris from Pakistan would fail.

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AJK PM sacks minister, as pre-election realignments intensify

In a sign of intensifying political manoeuvring ahead of the next elections in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), Prime Minister Faisal Mumtaz Rathore late on Thursday night removed Minister for Planning and Development Chaudhry Muhammad Rasheed from the cabinet after reports surfaced that he was joining the rival Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N). 

A notification announcing Mr Rasheed’s removal was issued around midnight, shortly after the prime minister’s political assistant, Syed Azzadar Shah Kazmi, broke the news through a social media post. 

The development followed the circulation on social media of a photograph showing Mr Rasheed meeting Federal Minister Rana Sanaullah. Former AJK premier Raja Farooq Haider and Federal Minister Sardar Muhammad Yousaf were also present in the meeting. Earlier, Mr Rasheed had separately met Mr Yousaf along with Mr Haider.

Both Mr Rasheed and Mr Yousaf belong to the Gujjar tribe, an influential factor in AJK’s clan-based electoral politics. 

Mr Rasheed was elected from LA-30 Muzaffarabad-IV in the 2021 elections on a Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) ticket, but defected in April 2023 when the party found itself in deep water.  Aligning himself in the camp of then AJK president Barrister Sultan Mahmood, he joined the coalition government led by Chaudhry Anwarul Haq. In October last year, he joined the Pakistan Peoples Party (PPP) along with Mr Mahmood’s group and was subsequently inducted into Mr Rathore’s cabinet. 

During the tenure of the current legislative assembly, he remained among the few lawmakers to have served under all four prime ministers. 

Blessed with good luck, Mr Rasheed first won a legislative assembly seat in 2006 on the ticket of Barrister Mahmood’s now-defunct Peoples Muslim League. He returned to the assembly in 2011 as a PPP candidate and contested unsuccessfully on the same party’s ticket in 2016 before winning again in 2021 under the PTI banner. 

For weeks, political circles in Muzaffarabad had been abuzz with reports that Mr Rasheed was negotiating with the PML-N leadership to secure the party ticket for LA-33 Muzaffarabad-VII — a constituency currently represented by School Education Minister Deevan Ali Chughtai, another former PTI lawmaker who recently joined the PPP.

Interestingly, Mr Chughtai himself had also been engaged in talks with the PML-N leadership. 

According to two reliable sources, Mr Chughtai, accompanied by one of his close associates holding a key local government office, met Rana Sanaullah in Islamabad on Wednesday in the presence of PML-N AJK president Shah Ghulam Qadir. During the meeting, he reportedly agreed to quit the PPP and join the PML-N.

One participant in the meeting claimed the discussions were deliberately kept secret and no photographs were taken. 

However, Mr Rasheed’s publicised meeting with PML-N leaders a day later appears to have altered the political calculus. According to one of Mr Chughtai’s confidants, the latter was left with little choice but to remain within the PPP fold after Mr Rasheed’s move became public. 

Meanwhile, the PML-N parliamentary board met in Lahore on Friday under the chairmanship of former prime minister Nawaz Sharif to interview more than 200 aspirants seeking party tickets for the upcoming AJK elections. 

Although Mr Rasheed did not attend the board meeting, he later visited the party’s Model Town secretariat, where he was welcomed by Federal Minister Amir Muqam, who draped a party sash around his shoulders. Mr Yousaf, Mr Haider, and some other little-known workers were also present on the occasion, though no other parliamentary board member from AJK attended the reception. 

A PML-N office-bearer, requesting anonymity, said the party had yet to decide its candidate for LA-33 despite Mr Rasheed’s apparent entry into the party. 

So far, Mr Haider has also applied for the PML-N ticket from LA-33 in addition to his native constituency, LA-32 Muzaffarabad-VII.

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AJK PM unveils trophy for ‘PM Gold Cup’ T20 tournament

Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Prime Minister Raja Faisal Mumtaz Rathore on Friday unveiled the trophy for the “PM Gold Cup” T20 cricket tournament, describing the event as an effort to promote healthy activities among youth and encourage cricket talent across the region. 

The trophy unveiling ceremony was held at the Prime Minister’s House in Muzaffarabad and attended by Minister for Forests Sardar Javed Ayoub, Minister for Health Syed Bazil Ali Naqvi, former sports minister and chairman of the organising committee Saleem Butt, SCO Sector Commander Col Javed Yousaf, senior government officials and organisers of the tournament. 

The tournament will be held from May 15 to 23 at the Muzaffarabad Cricket Stadium, featuring 10 teams representing districts of AJK along with two teams of 1989 migrants from occupied Kashmir — Jammu Janbaz and Srinagar Markhor. 

Speaking at the ceremony, Mr Rathore said the event would provide healthy recreational opportunities to the younger generation and help channel their energies towards constructive pursuits. 

He expressed the hope that people would attend the matches in large numbers to encourage sports activities and support the players. 

“Sports and cultural activities bring positive change in society and help utilise the energies of youth in the right direction,” he said, adding that increasing participation in rural-level matches reflected the younger generation’s keen interest in sports. 

The prime minister formally inaugurated the tournament by facing a ceremonial delivery and later signed a bat presented by the organisers. 

Talking to the media on the occasion, Mr Butt said the opening ceremony on May 15 would feature a cultural show and an exhibition match between Parliamentarians XI and Media XI. 

He said nationally and internationally known Pakistani cricketers would participate in the tournament alongside talented young players from AJK. 

“The tournament will not only promote cricket in AJK but also provide a valuable platform to young players to demonstrate their abilities,” he said. 

A lucky draw scheme has also been announced for spectators under which a motorbike will be awarded against every Rs100 ticket during each match, including the opening ceremony.

Tariq Naqash 

PML-N ‘almost’ finalises ticket distribution for 27 AJK constituencies

The Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) has “almost” finalised its candidates for 27 out of 33 constituencies in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), a party leader said on Friday after the party’s parliamentary board held its first formal meeting followed by detailed consultations with more than 200 aspirants seeking tickets for the upcoming elections. 

The meeting, chaired by PML-N president Nawaz Sharif, was held in Lahore. Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif, Deputy Prime Minister Ishaq Dar and Punjab Chief Minister Maryam Nawaz Sharif were among the 25-member board, 23 of whom had been notified on April 16. Former MNA Chaudhry Abid Raza and Federal Minister for Religious Affairs Sardar Muhammad Yousaf were added on the panel afterwards, and also asked to attend the session. 

According to participants, the board first met in a closed-door session that lasted about an hour, during which Nawaz Sharif took detailed briefings from AJK-based members on the prevailing political situation, according to participants. Senior leaders Rana Sanaullah and Ahsan Iqbal also shared their input. 

Later, all ticket aspirants were called in collectively and heard one by one, beginning from Dadyal (LA-1) to the last constituency, LA-45 (Khyber Pakhtunkhwa). However, due to Friday prayer timings, candidates appearing later in the sequence were given relatively limited time to present their views. 

Nawaz Sharif told the gathering that he had a personal attachment with party workers and had initially planned to meet them in Muzaffarabad, but the visit had to be postponed due to weather conditions. 

“However, I will visit you there soon,” he said, adding that workers should return and actively participate in the election campaign with full commitment. 

“Rest assured, we will form the next government in Azad Jammu and Kashmir,” he said, while urging party workers to maintain discipline. 

“For me, all workers are very important,” he added. 

Some participants introduced themselves and offered suggestions, including concerns about “parachuters” — a sarcastic term used for late entrants into the party fold. 

“On the whole, participants spoke well. Mian sahib [Sharif] was pleased with the discussion,” a party leader said. 

Another leader said that after Friday prayers, a second sitting of the parliamentary board was held, during which some sub-committees were formed. 

“As far as the 33 constituencies within AJK are concerned, the political committee constituted by Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif earlier this year has reached consensus on candidates in 27 of them,” the leader claimed, requesting anonymity. 

“Mian sahib has directed that consensus be developed on the remaining six seats as well and a final report be presented next week,” he added.

According to sources, Federal Ministers Amir Muqam and Rana Sanaullah — both members of the parliamentary board — have convened a meeting of the political committee in Islamabad on Monday to finalise recommendations for Nawaz Sharif. 

For the 12 refugee constituencies in Pakistan, relevant MNAs and MPAs have been asked to submit their proposals in line with ground realities, the sources said.

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AJK High Court stays 'point of sale' enforcement against hotels

The Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) High Court on Thursday granted status quo relief to nine major hotels and restaurants in Muzaffarabad that had challenged the Central Board of Revenue’s (CBR) campaign to enforce installation and integration of Point of Sale (POS), digital invoicing and electronic monitoring systems in the hospitality sector. 

Justice Syed Shahid Bahar, the senior puisne judge, passed the order while hearing a writ petition filed under Article 44 of the AJK Interim Constitution, 1974, and fixed May 21 for further proceedings. 

The petitioners included Neelum View Hotel and Restaurant, Shah Jahan Hotel, Jirga Restaurant, Hafiz Foods and Bakers, Royal Continental Hotel and Restaurant, Lala Latif Restaurant, Chira Mama Restaurant and Habibi Restaurant.

Represented by Barrister Kamran Ilyas Raja, the petitioners contended that they were not opposed to lawful taxation of hotel and hospitality services, but challenged the CBR’s attempt to extend the POS and electronic monitoring regime to hotels under Section 40C of the Sales Tax Act, 1990, and Chapter XIV-A of the Sales Tax Rules, 2006. 

The petition argued that Section 40C was framed primarily in the context of production, sales, clearances, stocks and taxable goods, and could not automatically be applied to service providers without explicit statutory authority. 

It further maintained that the service sector in AJK was separately governed under the AJK Sales Tax (Tax on Services) Act, 2001, and that subordinate legislation, including Rules 150ZA, 150ZB and 150ZC, could not enlarge the scope of the parent statute.

The petitioners also questioned the legal basis for extending the impugned regime to hotels, arguing that the authorities had failed to identify any notification, SRO, circular or gazette instrument authorising such application. 

They sought declarations that the POS enforcement regime, insofar as it applied to hotels and hospitality businesses, was without lawful authority, and prayed that the authorities be restrained from sealing premises, imposing penalties or taking coercive action except strictly in accordance with law.

After the preliminary hearing, the judge granted status quo in favour of the petitioners, effectively providing interim protection against “coercive enforcement measures” until the next hearing.

Tariq Naqash