Holding AJK’s national and black flags, participants took strong exception to the government for its designs to “unleash Frontier and Punjab constabularies on the people of the state, seeking their just rights through peaceful means."
Witnesses said that in many parts of the town traders pulled down their shutters in areas from where the rally passed.
On April 22, the AJK government had calandestinely requested the interior ministry in a letter to place six additional platoons of civil armed forces at its disposal for three months to “strengthen the capacity of the AJK police to ensure foolproof security of Chinese nationals and our strategic national infrastructure such as Neelum-Jhelum power house, Mangla power house, and Gulpur power house.”
“In addition, we are also now faced with calls for shutter-down and wheel-jam strikes from May 11 onwards given by the sub-nationalists and other disgruntled subversive elements who intend to create a law and order situation by forcibly closing of markets and disrupting public service delivery,” the letter had added.
Though immediately AJK’s senior minister Waqar Noor and later Prime Minister Chaudhry Anwarul Haq himself had denied outright that the deployment of the civil armed forces had anything to do with the protest of the Joint Action Committee, the leaked letter of AJK chief secretary had torpedoed their assertions.
The Joint Action Committee has long been calling for rationalisation of electricity tariff in accordance with production cost, subsidy on wheat flour and termination of extravagance of government functionaries among other demands, many of which was conceded by an official negotiation committee after several rounds of talks. It has given a call for a state-wide protest on May 11, following the government's "failure to implement even the mutually agreed upon decisions, let alone other demands."
In a statement on Monday, Prime Minister Haq reiterated that the civil armed forces had not been deployed to quell the protests of the Joint Action Committee, but for the security of foreign engineers working on hydropower projects in the state.”
“Peaceful protest is a democratic and fundamental right of every citizen, but no one can be allowed to take the law into their hands under this guise,” he said.
Nevertheless, the deployment had triggered serious reservations from two former prime ministers – Raja Farooq Haider of the PML-N and Sardar Abdul Qayyum Niazi of PTI as well as the PML-N secretary general Chaudhry Tariq Farooq and AJK Supreme Court Bar Association President Raja Sajjad Ahmed.
“Deployment of civil armed forces in the peaceful region of Azad Kashmir will create a negative impression and provide India an opportunity to propagate against the liberated territory. Therefore, it must be reserved immediately,” Mr Niazi said during a conversation with PTI workers in Tatta Pani.
He urged the government to find a solution to the problem through negotiations with the Joint Action Committee rather than using the force to the detriment of the interests of the state.
Mr Haider stressed upon the government to avoid using Frontier or Punjab constabularies in the state in general and in Poonch division in particular under any circumstances.
“The government should resolve the issues through dialogue and no step should be taken that India may exploit for propaganda against Pakistan and the Kashmiris,” he said.
However, a detailed response was given by the Supreme Court Bar Association president, who castigated prime minister Haq for “breaching the provisions of the Constitution and Rules of Business enunciating the process for important decisions.”
“The government means the prime minister and the cabinet, and not just the prime minister. But ironically since April last year the state is being ruled by a wiseacre who has amassed all powers, including that of the appointment of a driver and peon, in himself in sheer disregard of the Constitution and the Rules of Business, to the detriment of the system,” he said of Mr Haq.
"Summoning the civil armed forces from Pakistan in the name of the security of Chinese workers is unlawful and unconstitutional because the matter has not been placed before and approved by the cabinet," he maintained.
Referring to the impression being spread by some circles that “the Action Committee’s protest enjoyed the backing of Indian agents and anti-state forces,” the SCBA president maintained that if the government possessed any substantial evidence in this regard, it should initiate legal proceedings against such elements which the entire legal fraternity would fully support.
“However, the irony in this state is that whoever raises voice for the rights of people and state [AJK] is dubbed as traitor. I want to make it clear that neither are we [lawyers] against the state nor are we traitors. But we do not need certificates of patriotism from anyone,” he said.
“It’s not acceptable to dub those who are gulping down the resources like vultures as loyal and those who raise voice for the legitimate rights of common man as traitors.”
Tariq Naqash
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