Some AJK PTI leaders want PM Khan to host AJK parliamentary party meeting

Amid growing disquiet and discontent in the ranks of the nascent Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) government in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), some of its senior members are reportedly trying hard to persuade Prime Minister Imran Khan to summon a parliamentary party meeting to help him have a first-hand information about their concerns and apprehensions, it has been reliably learnt. 

The efforts have picked up pace after the AJK Prime Minister, Sardar Abdul Qayyum Niazi, got released a flattering “analysis” from the Press Information Department (PID), showering lavish praise on him for his “political wisdom and achievements in a short span of time.”  

“Sardar Abdul Qayyum Niazi's popularity is on a constant rise and by taking farsighted decisions, revolutionary steps and people friendly policies he has given substance to his nomination by Imran Khan… His political acuity has landed opponents in deep waters and proved him a man of strong nerves,” claimed the press release.

Interestingly, a section of the vernacular press had an addition of some scornful remarks about Mr Niazi’s opponents in this PID fed analysis.

“The political acuity and sagacity of PM Niazi have frustrated the shenanigans of political pygmies within the PTI,” it said, without naming anyone. 

It however transpired later that this addition was made by an Islamabad based journalist belonging to Mr Niazi’s constituency - the only media person close to him.

 Sources claimed that the press release was issued to ward off growing resentment against Mr Niazi within the parliamentary party for several reasons. 

Background interviews by this scribe with some cabinet members on condition of anonymity revealed that most of them were unhappy with Mr Niazi for being “constantly ignored in affairs related to their respective portfolios.”

What had particularly ruffled their feathers were the frequent shuffling in top bureaucracy "without any consultation with them" as well as inductions against some important discretionary posts of persons who had allegedly opposed the PTI candidates during election campaign.

“People voted us to power to make good of the wrongdoings of the past, something we were also tasked with by [Imran] Khan Sahib from the day one. But, ironically, so far we have not been able to make substantial progress towards it due to lack of coordination with and cooperation from the office of the [AJK] prime minister,” fumed one cabinet member.

Another minister maintained that the AJK people had voted the PTI to run the affairs of government and not any “particular family.” 

“While the former prime minister was running the government through bureaucracy, the incumbent [Mr Niazi] is doing this through some of his close relations instead of the cabinet,” he alleged. 

“One kinsman [of PM] looks after the affairs of the south [of AJK] and the other of the north… They hold no official positions but are brazenly using official vehicles and making decisions,” he added.

More than five ministers this scribe spoke to confirmed that some senior party leaders had been trying to draw attention of the party chairman [PM Khan] towards the “sorry state of affairs in AJK.” 

They were of the view that Prime Minister Khan was not being fed with the actual information of the situation on the ground. 

Ever since the formation of government he had not held an exclusive meeting with AJK’s parliamentary party which had now become inevitable for the sake of party’s goodwill, they said, adding, the meeting was bound to help Mr Khan have a first-hand knowledge of the concerns and reservations of party lawmakers “as everyone would speak out his heart before him without any fear or favour.” 

When contacted by this scribe, minister for information and law, Sardar Faheem Akhtar Rabbani said every lawmaker could harbour a desire to hold a meeting with the party chairman and there was nothing wrong with it. 

“If they want the chairman to summon the parliamentary party meeting where they can present their viewpoint, they can convey this desire to him through party’s [regional president,” he said, referring to senior minister Sardar Tanveer Ilyas. 

Mr Rabbani dismissed allegations that Mr Niazi was not taking ministers on board on official matters. 

“Look, the powers of the prime minister and ministers are defined in the statues. If anyone [minister] has any grievances, he should talk to the prime minister,” he maintained.  

It may be recalled that in December last year, some of the 17 PTI parliamentary party members, including 10 ministers and one adviser, had also expressed the same concerns with President Barrister Sultan Mahmood, which his office had cautiously touched upon in a press release issued after the get-together. 

On his part, President Mahmood had also expressed disaffection with the government’s performance by observing that neither could it create goodwill among the masses nor were the PTI workers satisfied with it.  

Interestingly, PTI’s regional president and senior minister Tanveer Ilyas was not invited by Mr Mahmood at that meeting, because both were at loggerheads with each other right from pre-election days.

  However, of late both have mended fences with each other and resolved to “jointly struggle for freedom of occupied Kashmir and betterment of governance in AJK.”

Interestingly, the opposition parties are enjoying the discord within the ruling party.

"Whatever and however hollow claims the PTI government may make in official handouts, its performance is dismal both in and outside the assembly... Their slip-ups amuse us," remarked Leader of the Opposition, Chaudhry Latif Akbar.

...Tariq Naqash

AJK Council polls: PTI hardly evades its divide becoming public

In a nerve-racking tug-of-war within the ruling Pakistan Tehreek-e-Insaf (PTI) in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), its president Sardar Tanveer Ilyas emerged victorious on Monday after his nominee for the AJK Council seat was preferred over another candidate backed by Prime Minister Sardar Abdul Qayyum Niazi.

Polling for the two council seats was held in the Legislative Assembly building and of the polled 50 votes Sardar Seyab Khalid of PTI secured 31 and Mohammad Hanif, the joint candidate of Pakistan People’s Party (PPP) and Pakistan Muslim League Nawaz (PML-N), secured 19 votes.

With 32 members, the PTI had awarded its tickets to Khalid and Mohammad Asghar Qureshi, hoping against the hope that the opposition - PPP with 12 votes and PML-N with 7 votes - would contest separately thus paving the way for it to get its both nominees elected.

However, on Saturday night, PPP regional president Chaudhry Muhammad Yasin announced in a tweet that his party had agreed to support PML-N’s nominee Mohammad Hanif as joint candidate so as to ensure that the “incompetent PTI government does not get a free run.”

Following the development, the ruling PTI was left with no option but to pick any of the two ticket holders to clinch its share of one seat.

PTI sources said PM Niazi and a federal minister were in favour of Qureshi, but when Niazi summoned the parliamentary party meeting at the PM House to discuss polling related issues, much to his shock hardly 14 members turned up.

On the other hand, Ilyas also summoned a meeting of PTI legislators at a local hotel early on Monday where around 21 members were in attendance.

Speaking at the meeting, Ilyas maintained that Khalid was pledged a council seat on the occasion of PM Imran Khan’s election campaign related public meeting in Bagh city to which he stood as a witness.

The attendees, insiders said, were also unhappy at Qureshi’s nomination because many of them believed that some PTI bigwigs had pocketed little over Rs 50 million from him for the seat.

The divide in PTI was so visible that around half hour before the close of polling, none of them had cast a vote against all 19 votes polled by the opposition. The ruling party submitted an application before the election commission to enhance polling time beyond 2pm because “bad weather had hampered the travel plans of some of its members, but it was turned down after an objection by the opposition, forcing the PTI lawmakers to rush to the voting hall minutes before the closure of the gate.

Prior to that, sources said, PM Niazi kept on asking party members to vote for Qureshi, claiming that PM Imran Khan and federal minister Asad Umar had asked him on phone to convey the same message to them. However, his repeated insistence cut no ice with the legislators. On one occasion, Ilyas went on to ask him to show him the call log of his mobile to prove whether PM Khan had made him a call, the sources said.

According to sources, Ilyas had 24 lawmakers on his back and was confident that the number could increase in the event of voting between Khalid and Qureshi. However, in order to prevent exposure of internal divide, cabinet members Khawaja Farooq Ahmed, Abdul Majid Khan and Deevan Chughtai persuaded Qureshi to pull out of the fray to save the party's unity.

Though Qureshi surrendered himself to their "request" he could not hide his anger and frustration, as he was heard saying to someone in a packed room that "he had lost both his money and honour." When the PTI legislators were heading towards the voting hall, Qureshi was also heard saying to them that his money should be returned before polling.

Later, in a brief chat with media persons, Ilyas asserted that the election of Khalid was the "success of PM Khan’s vision and ideology.”

“We could have clinched the other as well, but we adhered to democratic traditions," he maintained.

Following Monday’s election, the number of PTI seats in the toothless council has increased to four while PPP and PML-N have one each seat.

Tariq Naqash

AJK police seize big cache of weapons from 2 KP residents

The Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) police on Monday arrested two suspects belonging to Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) after seizing a big haul of arms and ammunition from their vehicle during a routine checking at the territory's frontier towards Punjab.

Kamran Ali, senior superintendent of police (SSP) in Mirpur, told this scribe by telephone that head constable Muhammad Shafique and constable Amjad Ali stationed during the daytime at Dhan Galli picket intercepted a Toyota Corolla car, registered in Sindh, after it entered the AJK territory from neighbouring Punjab between 10:30 and 11am.

Dhan Galli village is located on the right bank of Jhelum River at the mouth of Mangla reservoir in the jurisdiction of Mirpur district’s Dadyal police station. A bridge connects this area with Rawalpindi district of Punjab.

As the two persons, later identified as Abidullah of Takht Bhai (Mardan) and Saeedullah of Tall (Hangu), showed reluctance to open the boot of their car, the policemen got alerted and upon search recovered the illegal cache in small cardboard boxes, the SSP said.  

After handcuffing the suspects, both policemen drove them to Dadyal in the seized vehicle as immediately they were unable to seek reinforcement from their police station concerned due to lack of communication facilities in Dhan Galli.  

Civil society sources in Dadyal maintained that despite being a sensitive border village, Dhan Galli was not only devoid of electricity but also strong signals of almost all cellular networks which was why the two policemen had to shift the accused to Dadyal on their own.

SSP Ali praised both of them as “real heroes” for their exemplary bravery in the face of a challenging situation and lack of resources.

Interestingly, after a short drive from Dhan Galli, one of the accused made the car stop on the pretext of relieving himself and in doing so managed to flee from the scene.

However, he was captured from a nearby jungle after a two hours long manhunt by a police team led by the local DSP Chaudhry Ansar and SHO Ammar Dar.

SSP Ali informed that the seized cache, destined for Kotli district, included three Kalashnikovs, two 44-bore rifles, two 223-bore rifles, 18 12-bore rifles, 19 30-bore pistols and 56 magazines containing more than 11,000 bullets.  

The suspects were initially booked under section 15 (3) of the Arms Act but more sections would be added to the FIR after investigations, he said.

According to him, another two persons from KP who were allegedly escorting the seized vehicle in a Suzuki Cultus had slipped out after the apprehension of their colleagues.  

“However, we are keeping a sharp lookout for them and their seizure will help us unearth and bust the whole network,” he said.

 Tariq Naqash

Haider stays away from Organising Committee maiden meeting; claims Nawaz asked him to supervise its task

 The recently constituted ‘organising committee’ of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) chapter of Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) held its maiden meeting on Monday in Islamabad but instead of making it to the get-together, party’s disgruntled former regional president Raja Farooq Haider preferred to be greeted by hundreds of his supporters at Kohala enroute to Muzaffarabad.

The 15-member organising committee, with former secretary general Shah Ghulam Qadir as its head, was constituted by PML-N president Shahbaz Sharif on Dec 10 after dissolving AJK chapter’s entire organisational setup, including overseas bodies.

Haider was among the remaining members who included Chaudhry Tariq Farooq, Chaudhry Muhammad Saeed, Raja Naseer Ahmed Khan, Mushtaq Minhas, Chaudhry Muhammad Aziz, Dr Najeeb Naqi, Ms Noreen Arif, Barrister Iftikhar Ali Gillani, Dr Mustafa Bashir, Raja Muhammad Siddique, Syed Shaukat Shah, Sardar Abdul Khaliq Wasi and Zulfiqar Ali Malik. 

The Monday’s meet at the Bani Gala residence of Qadir was attended by all of them, except Haider who had returned from a long USA and UK tour on Dec 16.

Instead, he drove from Islamabad to Muzaffarabad and was received by a large number of his supporters at Kohala Bridge. However, while speaking to them, he did not make any direct reference to the committee's meeting but did make a claim that Nawaz Sharif had asked him to "stay in the committee and supervise the task assigned to it.”  

On the other hand, Qadir said he did not know as to why Haider had not turned up at the meeting, even though he had fixed Dec 20 in keeping with his and another committee member's travel dates.

He informed that the meeting held in in very cordial atmosphere had renewed allegiance to the narrative of Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif apart from reposing full faith in their leadership.

According to him,  it had been resolved that membership drive and reorganisation from the ward to polling station level followed by the union councils and constituencies would be simultaneously initiated within a week.

Apart from that, he said,  it had also been decided to ascertain names of party activists who had violated party discipline during the recent general elections for disciplinary action against them. Recommendations would be sent to the central secretariat for revocation of the basic membership of those who had contested elections against party candidates, he added.

Qadir said the meeting had taken strong exception to the PTI government’s “vindictive actions” in AJK and all workers had been asked to submit details/proof in this regard.

He said the meeting had also strongly condemned “non-inclusion of Kashmir issue in the agenda of OIC foreign ministers’ conference in Islamabad” as well as the lack of any “substantial move” by Imran Khan in support of suffering Kashmiris after India’s Aug 5, 2019 move.

In his speech at Kohala, Haider claimed that he had declined to be part of the organising committee during his last meeting with Nawaz Sharif in London but he did not agree.

“Mian sahib asked me if I acknowledge him as 'head' and I responded you are not only the head but our leader. On this, he stressed that I [Haider] have to be part of the committee and supervise the task of reorganisation,” he claimed. 

He urged PML-N workers, particularly those active on social media, to not to issue any confrontational statements and instead maintain unity in their ranks.

 Tariq Naqash

 

PML-N president dissolves party's AJK chapter; forms committe for reorganisation

In a widely anticipated move, Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) president Shahbaz Sharif on Friday dissolved party’s entire organisation in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), forming a 15-member organising committee for reorganisation and fresh election of office bearers within two months.

According to a notification issued by party’s central secretary general Ahsan Iqbal, the organising committee is headed by Shah Ghulam Qadir, the former regional secretary general, and includes former regional president Raja Farooq Haider as one of the 14 members.  

The remaining members include Chaudhry Tariq Farooq from Bhimber, Chaudhry Muhammad Saeed from Mirpur, Raja Naseer Ahmed Khan and Zulfiqar Ali Malik from Kotli, Raja Mushtaq Minhas from Bagh, Chaudhry Muhammad Aziz from Haveli, Sardar Abdul Khaliq Wasi from Poonch, Dr Najeeb Naqi from Sudhnoti, Ms Noreen Arif and Barrister Iftikhar Ali Gillani from Muzaffarabad, Dr Mustafa Bashir from Jhelum Valley, Raja Muhammad Siddique and Syed Shaukat Shah from Kashmiri refugees based in Pakistan.

Except for Mr Malik and Mr Wasi, the rest were part of the cabinet in the previous PML-N government. Of these 15 members, only Mr Qadir and Mr Haider have returned in the July 2021 elections from Neelum and Jhelum valleys, respectively.

Interestingly, despite being the regional chapters of the national parties, both the PML-N and PPP AJK have their separate organisational bodies in the Kashmiri refugees’ constituencies in Pakistan as well as in Europe, UK, North America and Gulf countries.

The PML-N notification declared that all wings of the party as well as its organisational set-up in Pakistan and overseas would also stand dissolved.

Setting the terms of reference, it stated that the reorganisation and election for new office bearers would be held on the basis of divisions, districts, electoral constituencies, union councils, wards and polling stations in consultation with the members of the organising committee within two months.

The committee would keep the party president and secretary general informed about progress of reorganisation work on a regular basis, it added.

The PML-N was launched in AJK in December 2010, with Mr Haider and Mr Qadir its chief organiser and secretary organising committee, respectively. At the first convention in Mirpur in April 2012, Mr Haider, Mr Farooq and Mr Qadir were elected unopposed as president, senior vice president and secretary general, respectively.

However, afterwards the party could not hold a second convention, notwithstanding muffled voices for the same during its government in AJK from 2016 to 2021.

The differences in the PML-N AJK chapter came into the open late last month after Mr Qadir, Mr [Tariq] Farooq and Mr Minhas overturned the nominations of some United States-based PML-N workers for overseas party offices by Mr Haider during his private USA tour, saying that the move was not only "in contravention of a consensus on re-organisation but had also caused irreparable damage to the party’s goodwill.”

According to PML-N sources, at a meeting held in Kashmir House on July 31 last year, it was unanimously decided that all organisations and wings of PML-N AJK, including those in the 12 constituencies in Pakistan and abroad, would be dissolved to pave the way for fresh [party] elections and that the new bodies would be constituted at constituency, polling station/ward, union council, district and division level within two months.

The meeting was chaired by Mr Haider and other participants included Mr Farooq, Mr Minhas, Mr Naqim, Mr Aziz, Mr Wasi and Mr Malik.

Decisions of the meeting were conveyed to both Nawaz Sharif and Shahbaz Sharif on the party's letterhead with signatures of all seven participants.

Before the controversy over nominations became public, Mr Haider and Mr Farooq had also separately called on Nawaz Sharif in London where the latter had reportedly asked them in detail about the reasons that had led to the party's vanquishment in AJK polls.

When contacted, Mr Qadir maintained that the reorganisation and fresh election of office bearers was a unanimous demand of all party workers that had been met by the central leadership.

“We will accomplish this task within the stipulated period by taking every worker on board,” he vowed.

Meanwhile, Friday’s decision had also triggered a volley of comments on different social media platforms between the supporters and opponents of the dissolution of the party's organisation, mainly the “demotion” of Mr Haider.  

However, according to a brief statement by his spokesperson, Mr Haider had urged all party workers to avoid “confrontational comments and maintain unity in their ranks.”

The spokesperson said Mr Haider would give a detailed response after his return from the UK on Dec 16.

Tariq Naqash

Aged leopard dies of injuries in 'territorial fight'

An aged common leopard died late last night while it was being transported to the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) capital from a mountainous suburban area for treatment of multiple injuries it had presumably suffered in territorial fight with other wild animal, an official said on Wednesday.

On Tuesday evening, the AJK wildlife and fisheries department dispatched a team to Riyali village, located some 35 kilometres towards northwest of here along the famous Machiara National Park, after the concerned village conservation committee members reported that a leopard, zoologically known as Panthera Pardus, was walking through a mountain stream with difficulty, which suggested it had suffered some serious wounds in its hind legs.

According to Syeda Shaista, a wildlife monitoring officer based in Muzaffarabad, the villagers had earlier tried on their own to rescue the wild cat but in vain.

The five-member team somehow managed to bundle the injured big cat into the back of pick-up for transportation to Muzaffarabad, but it expired shortly after the team had reached Patikka, a town along the main Neelum valley road, after covering around 20 kilometre journey through the precipitous link road, she told this scribe.

Ms Shaista said that the autopsy of the carnivore was performed by the AJK animal husbandry department veterinarians on Wednesday, during which they observed that it had suffered multiple injuries in the mouth region and hind legs due to the biting by other wild animals.

The report further stated that the animal’s backbone, vertebral column and bones of hind legs had also been severely fractured, which had caused its death, she added.

“It seems this aged leopard had gotten into a territorial fight with another leopard. And while being driven out, it fell from some height and suffered multiple fractures that led to its death.” Ms Shaista said.

She told that the hide of the dead animal would be flayed for stuffing.

The authoritative Red List of ‘Threatened Species’ compiled by the International Union for the Conservation of Nature (IUCN) classifies Panthera Pardus as “near threatened” species.

In Pakistan, this species is found in almost the entire mountainous range of AJK, adjoining Murree hills and parts of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa.

The AJK wildlife department claims that indirect evidence has shown that the population of leopards has increased in their area over the past decade.

With increased population and shrinking natural habitat and natural prey, the fight between the wild animals over space and food was occurring frequently, Ms Shaista said, adding, it was also why some of these animals occasionally descended on human populations.

Tariq Naqash