People have no political, civils rights
By Ankush Verma
Pakistani Occupied Jammu Kashmir (POJK) and Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) regions remained politically marginalized since its illegal occupation by Pakistan in 1947. Paradoxically, Imran Khan criticizes the lack of political freedom in Kashmir despite having a sham political system on its own side. The region of POJK is governed under the “Azad Kashmir Interim Constitution Act” which was passed in 1974. Under the act, POJK has political heads as President, Prime minister and a council but they all are totally powerless and dependent on Islamabad for every big or small issue at hand. Arif Jamal an US-based expert on Pakistan and Islam in an interview stated that Pakistan’s claims of free government in POJK are absurd and shallow.
“Pakistan claims there is an “Azad” (free) government in its part of Kashmir, in reality, it is pretty much a territory occupied by the Pakistani military. The government in Pakistan-administered Kashmir follows the dictates of Islamabad and the legislative assembly makes laws that are acceptable to the Pakistani authorities.” Not only this, the composition of the Election Commission in POJK is also biased and faulty. It is comprised of the officials that are acceptable to Islamabad. Only political groups which agree with the ideology of Pakistan are allowed to function and other groups demanding independence for Pakistani Kashmir are dealt with force and violence and barred from taking part in elections. Today, the major political groups in POJK are an extension of Islamabad-based political parties who only tries to push their agenda in the region and prove their loyalty to the Pakistani military.
The demands for provincial autonomy have always been raised by the people of Gilgit-Baltistan. Thus, in August 2009, the Government of Pakistan passed “Gilgit-Baltistan Empowerment and Self Governance Order” which actually changed the name of the Northern Areas to Gilgit-Baltistan. But this order was criticized in every corner of the region because it failed to address the basic questions of the rights of the people and the critical issue of provincial autonomy. Thus, it was rejected by the political groups in Gilgit-Baltistan, the pro-independence groups, and the pro-Indian groups. There have been allegations that the order was designed to secure increasing Chinese interest in POJK. It is known worldwide that the development works in POJK are heavily dependent on Chinese investments. This area has been under virtual Martial Law, where the rights of the people are vehemently suppressed and their needs are neglected. Various incidents of torture by the state machinery are reported from the area where every resident has to report to the local police station once every month and the movement from one village to another has to be reported to the police station. And their issues remain salient because the people have no representative in either house of the Parliament. They even don’t have the access to justice because of the absence of any high court or the bench of the apex courts of Pakistan in the region.
POJK has political heads as President, Prime minister and a council but they all are totally powerless and dependent on Islamabad for every big or small issue at hand. Arif Jamal an US-based expert on Pakistan and Islam in an interview stated that Pakistan’s claims of free government in POJK are absurd and shallow.
For Over seven decades now, the region of POJK and Gilgit-Baltistan has suffered continuous neglect by the successive regimes in Islamabad. The policy measures are taken by Islamabad to improve the socio-economic and political conditions are total eyewash and they are not even implemented in its spirit. Thus, these policy measures have become only lip service of the government. It is apparent that the people of both the regions remained backward even after the rule of over seven decades by Pakistan. Today, there is very negligible number of people who have attained higher positions in the government. The people in the region could not excel in any field because the successive governments were neither willing nor capable of empowering the people. The governments remained busy in filling their pockets by exploiting the resources of the region. Pakistan only tries to hide the true condition of the people of Gilgit-Baltistan by diverting the focus of international community on Kashmir. But, it is an undeniable fact that people in the Indian part of Kashmir enjoy as much freedom and rights as in the rest of India. The fact that Jammu and Kashmir is an integral part of the Indian Union proves that the Kashmiri people have constitutional rights in India. On the contrary to the claims of Pakistan, today, Pakistani Kashmiris, are unhappy with unequal rights in political sphere and how they are discriminated and treated by Islamabad.
The author is associated with POJK Studies
