Kashmir | News & Discussions.

[karan.1970]

This proves they are Indian puppets and some of them have joined police as they have no other choice to earn bread due to Indian occupation and this also proves that this compulsion did not changed Kashmiriat and will for Independent Kashmir in their hearts as this policeman said if he was NOT in uniform he would have Pelted stones on Indian invader army

You are now grasping at straws. Look at it this way...

1. If my aunt had a mouch, she would be my uncle
2. If I was the prime minister of India, I would have solved the poverty problem
3. If I wasnt in the Uniform ....

There is only one way this thread can go.. Like countless have gone before this. Niether of us can convince the other. Lets wait for any significant event before going on a kite flying spree..

 

[Trac]

LOL Meri Jan ap kis dunya me hoon?

• All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference
• The Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF)

LOL. Get your facts right mate, anyone can visit or report on AJK
News at islamgarh mirpur Azad Kashmir. news of Kotli Azad Kashmir, News of Bhimber Azad Kashmir,



Overseas Kashmiris Cell
http://www.pmajk.gov.pk/Ok.asp

They have their own government with it's on information and finance ministry and overseas kashmiri cell.

Departments

Investment Opportunities

Finance Department

Uncle ji only for you from a neutral source and thats the reality whole world know



Political Rights and Civil Liberties

The political rights of the residents of Pakistani-administered Kashmir remain severely limited. Neither the Northern Areas nor Azad Kashmir has representation in Pakistan's national Parliament. The Northern Areas are directly administered by the Pakistani government under the Legal Framework Order of 1994; the region is not included in the Pakistani constitution and has no constitution of its own, meaning there is no fundamental guarantee of civil rights, democratic representation, or the separation of powers. Executive authority is vested in the minister for Kashmir affairs, a civil servant appointed by Islamabad. A 36-seat Northern Areas Legislative Council (NALC) – of which 24 seats are filled through direct elections and six each are reserved for women and technocrats from each district – serves in an advisory capacity and has no authority to change laws or control revenue. Elections to the NALC were held in 2004, with independent candidates and representatives of national political parties winning seats. In October 2007, Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf announced a package of reforms that would change the NALC into the Northern Areas Legislative Assembly, devolving fiscal and legislative powers to locally elected politicians. The package would also allow for the election of a chief executive accountable to the assembly, but it would maintain federal control over the judiciary and the top executive post of "chairman." The region would continue to be administered under the Legal Framework Order rather than a constitutional framework like in Azad Kashmir, thus still falling short of compliance with a 1999 Supreme Court ruling on the issue. At year's end, Pakistan's broader political crisis cast doubt on the future of the proposed reforms.

The Pakistani military retains a guiding role on issues of politics and governance.

In 2007, the political crisis in Pakistan reverberated in Kashmir. Chaudhry Majeed, the PPP president for Azad Kashmir, and other party activists were briefly detained in November following Musharraf's declaration of a state of emergency, with some placed under house arrest for 30 days. In December, demonstrators clashed with police, burned tires, and blocked roads in antigovernment protests after the assassination of PPP leader and former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, but there were no reported injuries.

A lack of official accountability has been identified as a key factor in the poor socioeconomic development of both Azad Kashmir and the Northern Areas. Pakistani-controlled Kashmir was not rated separately in Transparency International's 2007 Corruption Perceptions Index.

The Pakistani government uses the constitution and other laws to curb freedom of speech on a variety of subjects, including the status of Kashmir and incidents of sectarian violence. In recent years, authorities have banned several local newspapers from publishing and have detained or otherwise harassed Kashmiri journalists.

In addition to pressure and threats from the authorities, journalists have been known to face harassment and attacks from nonstate actors, though no such incidents were reported in 2007. During the state of emergency imposed on the rest of Pakistan in November 2007, cable operators in Kashmir were instructed to suspend broadcasts of most national and international news channels.

In 2005, several waves of sectarian violence killed almost 100 people and led to a month-long curfew. Sporadic attacks continued to take place during 2006, including the destruction by fire of an Ismaili place of worship, but no violent incidents were reported in 2007.

Freedoms of association and assembly are restricted. The constitution of Azad Kashmir forbids individuals and political parties from taking part in activities that are prejudicial to the ideology of the state's accession to Pakistan. As such, police in recent years have regularly suppressed antigovernment demonstrations, sometimes violently. In 2005, at least 10 people were killed when police opened fire on Shia student protesters, and lengthy curfews were imposed to prevent demonstrators from assembling. In 2007, police clashed with demonstrators on several occasions, but there were no reports of deaths or lengthy detentions. In October, police baton-charged dozens of people demonstrating against a proposal to move the capital of Azad Kashmir from Muzafarrabad. Three people were arrested but released the same day. In November, police blocked activists of the proindependence APNA who were protesting in favor of truck service across the LOC from entering a town near the ceasefire line as planned.

Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are generally able to operate freely. However, the Aga Khan Rural Support Program – run by the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF), an international development organization that focuses on Ismaili communities worldwide – has been subjected to harassment and violence. According to the U.S. State Department's 2007 Report on International Religious Freedom, Sunni extremist groups have in recent years vandalized AKF-funded schools and health clinics and have attacked AKF personnel, although no such attacks were reported in 2007. The situation for labor rights in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir is similar to that in Pakistan.

The judiciary of the Northern Areas consists of district courts, a chief court, and since 2005, a separate court of appeals. With appointments based on three-year contracts subject to discretionary renewal, the judiciary is largely subservient to the executive. Azad Kashmir has its own system of local magistrates and high courts, whose heads are appointed by the president of Azad Kashmir. Appeals are adjudicated by the Supreme Court of Pakistan. There are also Islamic judges who handle criminal cases concerning Islamic law. In April 2007, local lawyers protested the appointment to the Azad Kashmir Supreme Court of Justice Mohammad Reaz Akhtar Chaudhry over the court's most senior judge, Justice Manzoor Hussain Gilani, arguing that it violated constitutional conventions and rules of seniority. The newspaper Dawn reported that the Azad Kashmir Supreme Court rejected a petition by the lawyers challenging the appointment and ordered that future petitions of a similar nature not be entertained by the courts.

According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) operates throughout Azad Kashmir and the Northern Areas and engages in extensive surveillance (particularly of proindependence groups and the press), as well as arbitrary arrests and detentions. In some instances, those detained by the ISI, the police, or the security forces are tortured, and several cases of death in custody have been reported. Impunity for acts of torture and other mistreatment of civilians by the military and intelligence services remains the norm. The territory also continues to be governed by the colonial-era Frontier Crimes Regulations, under which residents are required to report to local police stations once a month.

A number of Islamist militant groups, including al-Qaeda, operate from bases in Pakistani-administered Kashmir with the tacit permission of Pakistani intelligence. Tension between Islamist, pro-Pakistan groups and the proindependence Kashmiri groups – as well as some local residents – has reportedly intensified in recent years. In June 2007, a land dispute broke out between villagers in Azad Kashmir and the Islamist organization Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JUD), identified by the United States as a terrorist organization. Following the alleged torture of two men and the killing of a 17-year-old boy by JUD members, a mob burned down a temporary hospital the group had established following the 2005 earthquake.

Several hundred families displaced by shelling between Indian and Pakistani forces around the LOC prior to the 2003 ceasefire remain unable to return to their homes and have largely been excluded from earthquake-related assistance schemes. In addition, the Azad Kashmir government manages relief camps for refugees from Indian-administered Kashmir, the bulk of whom arrived after the situation on the Indian side worsened in 1989. Many more of the refugees (roughly 1.5 million) live elsewhere in Azad Kashmir and throughout Pakistan.

The status of women in Pakistani-administered Kashmir is similar to that of women in Pakistan. While the HRCP reports that honor killings and **** occur less frequently than in other areas of Pakistan, domestic violence, forced marriage, and other forms of abuse continue to be issues of concern. Women are not granted equal rights under the law, and their educational opportunities and choice of marriage partner remain circumscribed. In May 2007, the United Nations and other aid agencies temporarily suspended their work after suspected Islamists mounted an arson attack on the home of two aid workers; the organizations had received warnings against hiring women.



Men i want to highlight the main part and try to highlight that but all the Information is important so read full article


This is the reality of so called AZAD Kashmir

---------- Post added at 09:55 PM ---------- Previous post was at 09:54 PM ----------

LOL Meri Jan ap kis dunya me hoon?

• All Jammu and Kashmir Muslim Conference
• The Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF)

LOL. Get your facts right mate, anyone can visit or report on AJK
News at islamgarh mirpur Azad Kashmir. news of Kotli Azad Kashmir, News of Bhimber Azad Kashmir,



Overseas Kashmiris Cell
http://www.pmajk.gov.pk/Ok.asp

They have their own government with it's on information and finance ministry and overseas kashmiri cell.

Departments

Investment Opportunities

Finance Department

Uncle ji only for you from a neutral source and thats the reality whole world know



Political Rights and Civil Liberties

The political rights of the residents of Pakistani-administered Kashmir remain severely limited. Neither the Northern Areas nor Azad Kashmir has representation in Pakistan's national Parliament. The Northern Areas are directly administered by the Pakistani government under the Legal Framework Order of 1994; the region is not included in the Pakistani constitution and has no constitution of its own, meaning there is no fundamental guarantee of civil rights, democratic representation, or the separation of powers. Executive authority is vested in the minister for Kashmir affairs, a civil servant appointed by Islamabad. A 36-seat Northern Areas Legislative Council (NALC) – of which 24 seats are filled through direct elections and six each are reserved for women and technocrats from each district – serves in an advisory capacity and has no authority to change laws or control revenue. Elections to the NALC were held in 2004, with independent candidates and representatives of national political parties winning seats. In October 2007, Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf announced a package of reforms that would change the NALC into the Northern Areas Legislative Assembly, devolving fiscal and legislative powers to locally elected politicians. The package would also allow for the election of a chief executive accountable to the assembly, but it would maintain federal control over the judiciary and the top executive post of "chairman." The region would continue to be administered under the Legal Framework Order rather than a constitutional framework like in Azad Kashmir, thus still falling short of compliance with a 1999 Supreme Court ruling on the issue. At year's end, Pakistan's broader political crisis cast doubt on the future of the proposed reforms.

The Pakistani military retains a guiding role on issues of politics and governance.

In 2007, the political crisis in Pakistan reverberated in Kashmir. Chaudhry Majeed, the PPP president for Azad Kashmir, and other party activists were briefly detained in November following Musharraf's declaration of a state of emergency, with some placed under house arrest for 30 days. In December, demonstrators clashed with police, burned tires, and blocked roads in antigovernment protests after the assassination of PPP leader and former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, but there were no reported injuries.

A lack of official accountability has been identified as a key factor in the poor socioeconomic development of both Azad Kashmir and the Northern Areas. Pakistani-controlled Kashmir was not rated separately in Transparency International's 2007 Corruption Perceptions Index.

The Pakistani government uses the constitution and other laws to curb freedom of speech on a variety of subjects, including the status of Kashmir and incidents of sectarian violence. In recent years, authorities have banned several local newspapers from publishing and have detained or otherwise harassed Kashmiri journalists.

In addition to pressure and threats from the authorities, journalists have been known to face harassment and attacks from nonstate actors, though no such incidents were reported in 2007. During the state of emergency imposed on the rest of Pakistan in November 2007, cable operators in Kashmir were instructed to suspend broadcasts of most national and international news channels.

In 2005, several waves of sectarian violence killed almost 100 people and led to a month-long curfew. Sporadic attacks continued to take place during 2006, including the destruction by fire of an Ismaili place of worship, but no violent incidents were reported in 2007.

Freedoms of association and assembly are restricted. The constitution of Azad Kashmir forbids individuals and political parties from taking part in activities that are prejudicial to the ideology of the state's accession to Pakistan. As such, police in recent years have regularly suppressed antigovernment demonstrations, sometimes violently. In 2005, at least 10 people were killed when police opened fire on Shia student protesters, and lengthy curfews were imposed to prevent demonstrators from assembling. In 2007, police clashed with demonstrators on several occasions, but there were no reports of deaths or lengthy detentions. In October, police baton-charged dozens of people demonstrating against a proposal to move the capital of Azad Kashmir from Muzafarrabad. Three people were arrested but released the same day. In November, police blocked activists of the proindependence APNA who were protesting in favor of truck service across the LOC from entering a town near the ceasefire line as planned.

Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are generally able to operate freely. However, the Aga Khan Rural Support Program – run by the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF), an international development organization that focuses on Ismaili communities worldwide – has been subjected to harassment and violence. According to the U.S. State Department's 2007 Report on International Religious Freedom, Sunni extremist groups have in recent years vandalized AKF-funded schools and health clinics and have attacked AKF personnel, although no such attacks were reported in 2007. The situation for labor rights in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir is similar to that in Pakistan.

The judiciary of the Northern Areas consists of district courts, a chief court, and since 2005, a separate court of appeals. With appointments based on three-year contracts subject to discretionary renewal, the judiciary is largely subservient to the executive. Azad Kashmir has its own system of local magistrates and high courts, whose heads are appointed by the president of Azad Kashmir. Appeals are adjudicated by the Supreme Court of Pakistan. There are also Islamic judges who handle criminal cases concerning Islamic law. In April 2007, local lawyers protested the appointment to the Azad Kashmir Supreme Court of Justice Mohammad Reaz Akhtar Chaudhry over the court's most senior judge, Justice Manzoor Hussain Gilani, arguing that it violated constitutional conventions and rules of seniority. The newspaper Dawn reported that the Azad Kashmir Supreme Court rejected a petition by the lawyers challenging the appointment and ordered that future petitions of a similar nature not be entertained by the courts.

According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) operates throughout Azad Kashmir and the Northern Areas and engages in extensive surveillance (particularly of proindependence groups and the press), as well as arbitrary arrests and detentions. In some instances, those detained by the ISI, the police, or the security forces are tortured, and several cases of death in custody have been reported. Impunity for acts of torture and other mistreatment of civilians by the military and intelligence services remains the norm. The territory also continues to be governed by the colonial-era Frontier Crimes Regulations, under which residents are required to report to local police stations once a month.

A number of Islamist militant groups, including al-Qaeda, operate from bases in Pakistani-administered Kashmir with the tacit permission of Pakistani intelligence. Tension between Islamist, pro-Pakistan groups and the proindependence Kashmiri groups – as well as some local residents – has reportedly intensified in recent years. In June 2007, a land dispute broke out between villagers in Azad Kashmir and the Islamist organization Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JUD), identified by the United States as a terrorist organization. Following the alleged torture of two men and the killing of a 17-year-old boy by JUD members, a mob burned down a temporary hospital the group had established following the 2005 earthquake.

Several hundred families displaced by shelling between Indian and Pakistani forces around the LOC prior to the 2003 ceasefire remain unable to return to their homes and have largely been excluded from earthquake-related assistance schemes. In addition, the Azad Kashmir government manages relief camps for refugees from Indian-administered Kashmir, the bulk of whom arrived after the situation on the Indian side worsened in 1989. Many more of the refugees (roughly 1.5 million) live elsewhere in Azad Kashmir and throughout Pakistan.

The status of women in Pakistani-administered Kashmir is similar to that of women in Pakistan. While the HRCP reports that honor killings and **** occur less frequently than in other areas of Pakistan, domestic violence, forced marriage, and other forms of abuse continue to be issues of concern. Women are not granted equal rights under the law, and their educational opportunities and choice of marriage partner remain circumscribed. In May 2007, the United Nations and other aid agencies temporarily suspended their work after suspected Islamists mounted an arson attack on the home of two aid workers; the organizations had received warnings against hiring women.



Men i want to highlight the main part and try to highlight that but all the Information is important so read full article

UNHCR | Refworld | Freedom in the World 2008 - Kashmir [Pakistan]


This is the reality of so called AZAD Kashmir

 

[TextMiner]

These are not stones, but boulders of a long overdue laanat on the tyrants that have subjugated a free people. I said this months ago, this time Indians won't be able to stop this.

This reminds me of a poem that i read quite some time ago ; Sounds how eerily similar is GoI facing a similar test of character in the "path of democracy" ; Go thorugh this link to read the poem. Am posting it for our Readers' pleasure too.

A Rock in the Road

The path of life seemed straight
Then suddenly
A curve. A bump. A dip. A challenge
A rock…
Or is it a boulder?

An opportunity to learn. A test of character
Something to make me appreciate
the flat spots in the road

Confusion. Disillusion.
Resentment. Disappointment.
Trials. Troubles
Why is life so hard?

Tears. Sadness
Why do I feel down?

A glimmer of hope. A glimpse around the rock
The other side faintly visible
An encouragement nonetheless

Strength. Character.
A breath of fresh air
Deep nourishment to the soul

Inspiration. Stamina.
The will to press on
To never give up

Be patient. Be gentle.
In the end… It will all work out

The boulder in the road is moving
Inch by inch, atom by atom
But moving nonetheless

Soon it will fade away
Into history behind us
The insurmountable becoming mountable
The obstacle a lesson learned
The boulder…a tiny pebble

Sometimes, the pebble in our shoes give us more trouble than the boulders on the road ; The simple course of action to remedy this is remove the pebbles, not throw away the shoes. Similarly, all prudence dictates is to solve the problems of the Kashmiris (viz. Unemployment, Corruption, Under-development etc ), and not ignore the voices of the Kashmiris. Then all this mumbo-jumbo of Aazadi would automatically meet its demise.

 

[EjazR]

^^^^I think that shows us something

While there is presece of local and international media in the Kashmir valley

There seems to be no coverage of any happenigs of Gilgit or Kashmir regions in Pakistan. Interestingly the CMof gilgit is a retd Maj General.

The bouts of anti-shia violence is one of the reasons why the mostly shia populace of Kargil is pro-India. That doesn't mean that they love India ofcourse but they feel that out of the two the better option is India. GoI has a long way to go before proper governance and development can be setup in J&K to really integrate it with the country.

 

[Renegade]

Her son is here in kashmir and shares every joy and sorrow with other Kashmiris .

He was not given a passport so remains struck. Clearly his mother wanted him go out and study and other Kasmiris kids to give up their education and pelt stones but sadly it didn't work out for her.

One set of rules for others and another set for her own kids!!

 

[Neither Right Nor Wrong]

He was not given a passport so remains struck. Clearly his mother wanted him go out and study and other Kasmiris kids to give up their education and pelt stones but sadly it didn't work out for her.

One set of rules for others and another set for her own kids!!

On the other hand ..I think GOI should have given him a passport..and allowed him to go to Malaysia..that way at least her hypocrisy would have been exposed..all the Kashmiri youth., she instigated in stone throwing..would have stone her instead.

 

[EjazR]

This proves they are Indian puppets and some of them have joined police as they have no other choice to earn bread due to Indian occupation and this also proves that this compulsion did not changed Kashmiriat and will for Independent Kashmir in their hearts as this policeman said if he was NOT in uniform he would have Pelted stones on Indian invader army

But Jana, will you agree that there are no Indian Army opressing KAshmiris? And that it is the local J&K police involved?
That is all I said.

There was a time in the early 90s when there was not a single J&K police was availble. Local police had either run away because of being targeted by militants or joined the militants themselves. There were people from Jammu and Leh including Hindus as part of the sepratists militant groups like JKLF. Things have come a long way since.

The situation only turned ugly this year because of the shutdowns being enforced by sepratists by threatening them or otherwise. And The unnecessary use of excessive force primarily by the CRPF aggraveted the situation.

So if more J&K police were availble and CRPF was sitting in its barracks, the situation would not have turned as ugly as it did. Regardless of what people say, the sepratists had become irreleavant. This event has only "revived" them thanks to the incompetent way things were handled.

 

[Spring Onion]

Lolz hardline woman ?? The Orange media first should learn what does Hardline mean.

She is not from Saffron brigade.

and whats the bravest thing the Indian army did in this case? The state of India in Occupied Kashmir had been arresting Kashmiri leaders since decades.

Mod Edit: Plz do not generalize, keep the statements to the Occupying SF of India in Occupied Kashmir Only not rest of Indian SF, and do not think of this forum as BR to use Terrorist State kind of words

 

[do_more]

I need a clarification, what will happen when a woman dies in jihad and go to haven.

What will she get?

 

[karan.1970]

^ She is more useful alive..

 

[peacekeeper]

ok. I don\'t understand why Indian security forces arresting her. .

Her husband is in jail may be that is why she is arrested

That is a good move she was not allowing schools to open and giving hate speeches

 

[gubbi]

Lolz hardline woman ?? The Orange media first should learn what does Hardline mean.

She is not from Saffron brigade.

and whats the bravest thing the terrorist Indian army did in this case? The terrorist state of India in Occupied Kashmir had been arresting Kashmiri leaders since decades.

Generalizations again! What a block head!

In the same vein, then what is the bravest thing that PA has achieved, ever!? There have been reports and evidences that PA and ISI have in the past created and supported terrorist groups in Kashmir and Afghanistan, not to mention some amount of support to AQ! There are reports (Wikileaks) that Pakistani authorities still do. So can we now call Pakistan as the terrorist state of Pakistan?

Apologize and retract you statement or we all will start doing that! Seriously, whats the worst that will happen? Saner voices will disappear from this forum.

@Mods: Delete that offensive post or we all will start addressing Pakistan in the same way and not without reason.

 

[Ganga]

While the world focuses on the flood-ravaged Indus River valley, a quiet geopolitical crisis is unfolding in the Himalayan borderlands of northern Pakistan, where Islamabad is handing over de facto control of the strategic Gilgit-Baltistan region in the northwest corner of disputed Kashmir to China.

The entire western portion of Kashmir stretching from Gilgit in the north to Azad (Free) Kashmir in the south is closed to the world, in contrast to the media access that India permits in the eastern part, where it is combating a Pakistan-backed insurgency. But reports from a variety of foreign intelligence sources, Pakistani journalists and Pakistani human rights workers reveal two important new developments in Gilgit-Baltistan: a simmering rebellion against Pakistani rule and the influx of an estimated 7,000 to 11,000 soldiers of the People’s Liberation Army.

China wants a grip on the region to assure unfettered road and rail access to the Gulf through Pakistan. It takes 16 to 25 days for Chinese oil tankers to reach the Gulf. When high-speed rail and road links through Gilgit and Baltistan are completed, China will be able to transport cargo from Eastern China to the new Chinese-built Pakistani naval bases at Gwadar, Pasni and Ormara, just east of the Gulf, within 48 hours.

Many of the P.L.A. soldiers entering Gilgit-Baltistan are expected to work on the railroad. Some are extending the Karakoram Highway, built to link China’s Sinkiang Province with Pakistan. Others are working on dams, expressways and other projects.

Mystery surrounds the construction of 22 tunnels in secret locations where Pakistanis are barred. Tunnels would be necessary for a projected gas pipeline from Iran to China that would cross the Himalayas through Gilgit. But they could also be used for missile storage sites.

Until recently, the P.L.A. construction crews lived in temporary encampments and went home after completing their assignments. Now they are building big residential enclaves clearly designed for a long-term presence.

What is happening in the region matters to Washington for two reasons. Coupled with its support for the Taliban, Islamabad’s collusion in facilitating China’s access to the Gulf makes clear that Pakistan is not a U.S. “ally.” Equally important, the nascent revolt in the Gilgit-Baltistan region is a reminder that Kashmiri demands for autonomy on both sides of the cease-fire line would have to be addressed in a settlement.

Media attention has exposed the repression of the insurgency in the Indian-ruled Kashmir Valley. But if reporters could get into the Gilgit-Baltistan region and Azad Kashmir, they would find widespread, brutally-suppressed local movements for democratic rights and regional autonomy.

When the British partitioned South Asia in 1947, the maharajah who ruled Kashmir, including Gilgit and Baltistan, acceded to India. This set off intermittent conflict that ended with Indian control of the Kashmir Valley, the establishment of Pakistan-sponsored Free Kashmir in western Kashmir, and Pakistan’s occupation of Gilgit and Baltistan, where Sunni jihadi groups allied with the Pakistan Army have systematically terrorized the local Shiite Muslims.

Gilgit and Baltistan are in effect under military rule. Democratic activists there want a legislature and other institutions without restrictions like the ones imposed on Free Kashmir, where the elected legislature controls only 4 out of 56 subjects covered in the state constitution. The rest are under the jurisdiction of a “Kashmir Council” appointed by the president of Pakistan.

India gives more power to the state government in Srinagar; elections there are widely regarded as fair, and open discussion of demands for autonomy is permitted. But the Pakistan-abetted insurgency in the Kashmir Valley has added to tensions between Indian occupation forces and an assertive population seeking greater of local autonomy.

The United States is uniquely situated to play a moderating role in Kashmir, given its growing economic and military ties with India and Pakistan’s aid dependence on Washington. Such a role should be limited to quiet diplomacy. Washington should press New Delhi to resume autonomy negotiations with Kashmiri separatists. Success would put pressure on Islamabad for comparable concessions in Free Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan. In Pakistan, Washington should focus on getting Islamabad to stop aiding the insurgency in the Kashmir Valley and to give New Delhi a formal commitment that it will not annex Gilgit and Baltistan.

Precisely because the Gilgit-Baltistan region is so important to China, the United States, India and Pakistan should work together to make sure that it is not overwhelmed, like Tibet, by the Chinese behemoth.

Selig S. Harrison is director of the Asia Program at the Center for International Policy and a former South Asia bureau chief of The Washington Post.
The New York Times > Log In

 

[SpArK]

Azad Kashmir today
By Ahmad Faruqui

Azad Kashmir was created within two months of Pakistan’s independence with high expectations. Nestled in the mountainous western region that abuts the vale of Kashmir, it forms an archer’s bow that is about 100 miles long and about 20-40 miles wide.

The Pakistani security elite hoped that an arrow fired from the bow would bring about the instant liberation of the vale of Kashmir from Indian occupation. The first arrow was fired almost within days of creation.

It plunged the entire region of Kashmir into armed conflict. Fourteen months later, a ceasefire sponsored by the United Nations took effect on Jan 1, 1949. The ceasefire line remained stationary despite several attempts to move it. But after the 1971 war which saw the secession of East Pakistan, it was renamed the Line-of-Control (LoC). That militaristic designation persists to this day since the line which separates the two Kashmirs has not been formalised as an international border.

‘Azad’ means free and Azad Kashmir was supposed to serve as a model state whose liberty and freedom would inspire rebellion in Indian-administered Kashmir. That did not happen for several reasons. Constitutionally, Azad Kashmir is not a part of Pakistan. But neither is it an independent state. For its entire 62-year history, it has depended on Pakistan for its economic and political survival. It does not even issue its own postage stamps.

Because Islamabad has always exercised its claim on the entire state of Jammu and Kashmir, Azad Kashmir is not counted as a fifth province of Pakistan. But for all practical purposes, Muzaffarabad lives under Islamabad’s shadow. Its first government was established on Oct 24, 1947 with Sardar Mohammed Ibrahim as president. On Nov 3, 1947, Azad Kashmir sought unsuccessfully to join the United Nations as a member state.

In March 1949, after the dust had settled along the ceasefire line, Azad Kashmir signed a power-sharing arrangement with the Government of Pakistan ceding all authority related to defence, foreign affairs, refugees and the plebiscite to Pakistan.

Pakistan created a Ministry for Kashmir Affairs to look after its newest asset. However, as events would show, the ministry was soon preoccupied with influencing political direction in Azad Kashmir. Not surprisingly, the ministry’s directives were not always well received by Azad Kashmiris. At times, they were met with stiff resistance.

In 1955, Pakistan declared martial law in some parts of Azad Kashmir to suppress street violence triggered by the Kashmir Act. In 1957, Pakistan resorted to police action to quell a public meeting that was seeking direct action to create a united and liberated Kashmir. In 1961, President Ayub Khan carried out indirect elections in Azad Kashmir through a Basic Democracies Ordinance which legally only applied to Pakistan, further straining ties with the Azad Kashmiris.

Subsequently, faced with Islamabad’s dominance in their day-to-day affairs, several Azad Kashmiri leaders started a movement for liberating Indian-held Kashmir not for Pakistan but for creating a separate Kashmiri state. This further aggravated ties with Pakistan. While all this was happening, Jammu and Kashmir was inducted into the Indian union.

In 1965, the Pakistani army launched a covert war inside Indian Kashmir seeking to instigate a popular rebellion. This arrow too missed its target. Instead, it enraged India which launched a strong counter-offensive along the international border with West Pakistan.

Under the weight of the Indian elephant, the Pakistani military hastily called of its operations in Kashmir. The war ended in an UN-brokered ceasefire along the international border with minimal changes in the Kashmiri line. After the war, Pakistan lost its urge to light a fire across the Line of Control (LoC). Matters changed in 1979 when the Soviets invaded Afghanistan and the Pakistani military, with US and Saudi assistance, began training legions of Mujahideen to evict the godless communists.

After a bruised and battered Red Army pulled out of Kabul in 1989, Indian Jammu and Kashmir found itself in the grip of a large-scale revolt. Whether this was a purely indigenous movement or a corollary to events in Kabul continues to enrich scholarly volumes.

Regardless of the cause, the uprising in the vale provided the Kashmir hawks in Pakistan’s security elite yet another opportunity to press on with their objective. They reactivated their bases in Azad Kashmir and once again decided to fire arrows into Indian Jammu and Kashmir. Soon, ‘freedom fighters,’ armed and trained allegedly by the Pakistan Army, were rolling across in droves across the LoC.

Azad Kashmir was again in the cross-hairs of armed conflict. Against this backdrop, Pakistan under Gen Ziaul Haq decided to legally separate the geographically much larger Northern Areas of Gilgit and Baltistan from Azad Kashmir. This caused almost as much consternation in the latter as it did in India. The separation of the Northern Areas by Pakistan eliminated all doubts about the sovereignty of Azad Kashmir. With the reactivation of conflict across the Line-of-Control, the quality of life of the Azad Kashmiris was trammelled. Those who did not want to take part in the proxy war became pariahs.

Most of the cross-border infiltration was halted in the wake of 9/11 and the US invasion of Afghanistan. The attack on the Indian parliament in December 2001 was designed to reinvigorate the Kashmir issue but all it did was bring India and Pakistan to the brink of full-scale war in 2002. For a while the Musharraf regime sought to differentiate the struggle for freedom in Kashmir from political acts of terror but its spin failed to gain traction with the world community. Cross-border terrorism was quiet for several years.

The attacks on Mumbai by a group linked to militant activities in Kashmir in November 2008 were an attempt to reignite the conflict but succeeded only in drawing widespread opprobrium. During the past 62 years, the people of Azad Kashmir have been unable to arise out of poverty in large measure because they are caught in the crossfire between India and Pakistan. The land which their elders knew as a mountain paradise has been turned into a living hell.

Of the four million people who inhabit the region, nine of 10 live in extremely impoverished conditions in rural areas. Population growth is excessive, at 2.4 per cent per year, and the average house holds no fewer than seven people. Sadly, Azad Kashmir’s future is as murky today as it was in 1947. And the objective for its creation, the liberation of the vale of Kashmir, seems increasingly remote.


DAWN.COM | Editorial | Azad Kashmir today

 

[Trac]

Political Rights and Civil Liberties

The political rights of the residents of Pakistani-administered Kashmir remain severely limited. Neither the Northern Areas nor Azad Kashmir has representation in Pakistan's national Parliament. The Northern Areas are directly administered by the Pakistani government under the Legal Framework Order of 1994; the region is not included in the Pakistani constitution and has no constitution of its own, meaning there is no fundamental guarantee of civil rights, democratic representation, or the separation of powers. Executive authority is vested in the minister for Kashmir affairs, a civil servant appointed by Islamabad. A 36-seat Northern Areas Legislative Council (NALC) – of which 24 seats are filled through direct elections and six each are reserved for women and technocrats from each district – serves in an advisory capacity and has no authority to change laws or control revenue. Elections to the NALC were held in 2004, with independent candidates and representatives of national political parties winning seats. In October 2007, Pakistani president Pervez Musharraf announced a package of reforms that would change the NALC into the Northern Areas Legislative Assembly, devolving fiscal and legislative powers to locally elected politicians. The package would also allow for the election of a chief executive accountable to the assembly, but it would maintain federal control over the judiciary and the top executive post of "chairman." The region would continue to be administered under the Legal Framework Order rather than a constitutional framework like in Azad Kashmir, thus still falling short of compliance with a 1999 Supreme Court ruling on the issue. At year's end, Pakistan's broader political crisis cast doubt on the future of the proposed reforms.

Azad Kashmir has an interim constitution, an elected unicameral assembly, a prime minister, and a president who is elected by the legislative assembly. Both the president and the assembly serve five-year terms. Of the 49 assembly seats, 41 are filled through direct elections and eight are reserved seats (five for women and one each for representatives of overseas Kashmiris, technocrats, and religious leaders). However, Pakistan exercises considerable control over the structures of government and electoral politics. Islamabad's approval is required to pass legislation, and the minister for Kashmir affairs handles the daily administration of the state and controls the budget. The Pakistani military retains a guiding role on issues of politics and governance.

As detailed by Human Rights Watch (HRW) in a 2006 report on the region, individuals and political parties who do not support Kashmir's accession to Pakistan are barred from participating in the political process, standing for election, taking a job with any government institution, or accessing educational institutions. At least 60 proindependence candidates who belonged to the JKLF, the APNA, and smaller political parties were barred from participating in the July 2006 Azad Kashmir legislative assembly elections. Overall, HRW noted that the election process was flawed and "greeted with widespread charges of poll rigging by opposition political parties and independent analysts." However, unlike the 2001 elections, the polls featured few instances of physical violence and harassment – aside from threats – against candidates or their supporters, possibly because of the greater international presence in the wake of the earthquake. In general, antiaccession parties and individuals are subject to surveillance, harassment, and sometimes imprisonment by Pakistani intelligence and security services.

In 2007, the political crisis in Pakistan reverberated in Kashmir. Chaudhry Majeed, the PPP president for Azad Kashmir, and other party activists were briefly detained in November following Musharraf's declaration of a state of emergency, with some placed under house arrest for 30 days. In December, demonstrators clashed with police, burned tires, and blocked roads in antigovernment protests after the assassination of PPP leader and former prime minister Benazir Bhutto, but there were no reported injuries.

Azad Kashmir receives a large amount of financial aid from the Pakistani government, especially following the 2005 earthquake, but successive administrations have been tainted by corruption and incompetence. A lack of official accountability has been identified as a key factor in the poor socioeconomic development of both Azad Kashmir and the Northern Areas. Pakistani-controlled Kashmir was not rated separately in Transparency International's 2007 Corruption Perceptions Index.

The Pakistani government uses the constitution and other laws to curb freedom of speech on a variety of subjects, including the status of Kashmir and incidents of sectarian violence. In recent years, authorities have banned several local newspapers from publishing and have detained or otherwise harassed Kashmiri journalists. In March 2007, the government suspended its advertisements in publications by the Dawn English-language media group after it reported on a possible resurgence of official support for militants in Kashmir. In April 2007, Dawn reported that the editor and publisher of the banned monthly Kargil International magazine were indicted on sedition and defamation charges for publishing a proindependence article in 2004. In addition to pressure and threats from the authorities, journalists have been known to face harassment and attacks from nonstate actors, though no such incidents were reported in 2007. During the state of emergency imposed on the rest of Pakistan in November 2007, cable operators in Kashmir were instructed to suspend broadcasts of most national and international news channels.

Internet access is not usually restricted but remains confined to urban centers. Deliberately limited telephone and mobile phone access has been expanded in the wake of the 2005 earthquake. The presence of foreign media and aid organizations has also helped to partially open up a tightly controlled information environment. Books that do not adequately adhere to a proaccession stance are regularly banned, according to HRW.

Pakistan is an Islamic republic, and there are numerous restrictions on religious freedom. Religious minorities also face unofficial economic and societal discrimination and are occasionally subject to violent attack. Shia Muslims, who form the majority of the population in the Northern Areas, include a large number of Ismailis, a group that follows the Aga Khan. Sectarian strife between Shiites and the increasing number of Sunni Muslims (many of whom are migrants from elsewhere in Pakistan) first became a concern in 1988 and continues to be a problem. In 2005, several waves of sectarian violence killed almost 100 people and led to a month-long curfew. Sporadic attacks continued to take place during 2006, including the destruction by fire of an Ismaili place of worship, but no violent incidents were reported in 2007.

Freedoms of association and assembly are restricted. The constitution of Azad Kashmir forbids individuals and political parties from taking part in activities that are prejudicial to the ideology of the state's accession to Pakistan. As such, police in recent years have regularly suppressed antigovernment demonstrations, sometimes violently. In 2005, at least 10 people were killed when police opened fire on Shia student protesters, and lengthy curfews were imposed to prevent demonstrators from assembling. In 2007, police clashed with demonstrators on several occasions, but there were no reports of deaths or lengthy detentions. In October, police baton-charged dozens of people demonstrating against a proposal to move the capital of Azad Kashmir from Muzafarrabad. Three people were arrested but released the same day. In November, police blocked activists of the proindependence APNA who were protesting in favor of truck service across the LOC from entering a town near the ceasefire line as planned.

Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) are generally able to operate freely. However, the Aga Khan Rural Support Program – run by the Aga Khan Foundation (AKF), an international development organization that focuses on Ismaili communities worldwide – has been subjected to harassment and violence. According to the U.S. State Department's 2007 Report on International Religious Freedom, Sunni extremist groups have in recent years vandalized AKF-funded schools and health clinics and have attacked AKF personnel, although no such attacks were reported in 2007. The situation for labor rights in Pakistani-controlled Kashmir is similar to that in Pakistan.

The judiciary of the Northern Areas consists of district courts, a chief court, and since 2005, a separate court of appeals. With appointments based on three-year contracts subject to discretionary renewal, the judiciary is largely subservient to the executive. Azad Kashmir has its own system of local magistrates and high courts, whose heads are appointed by the president of Azad Kashmir. Appeals are adjudicated by the Supreme Court of Pakistan. There are also Islamic judges who handle criminal cases concerning Islamic law. In April 2007, local lawyers protested the appointment to the Azad Kashmir Supreme Court of Justice Mohammad Reaz Akhtar Chaudhry over the court's most senior judge, Justice Manzoor Hussain Gilani, arguing that it violated constitutional conventions and rules of seniority. The newspaper Dawn reported that the Azad Kashmir Supreme Court rejected a petition by the lawyers challenging the appointment and ordered that future petitions of a similar nature not be entertained by the courts.

According to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), Pakistan's Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI) operates throughout Azad Kashmir and the Northern Areas and engages in extensive surveillance (particularly of proindependence groups and the press), as well as arbitrary arrests and detentions. In some instances, those detained by the ISI, the police, or the security forces are tortured, and several cases of death in custody have been reported. Impunity for acts of torture and other mistreatment of civilians by the military and intelligence services remains the norm. The territory also continues to be governed by the colonial-era Frontier Crimes Regulations, under which residents are required to report to local police stations once a month.

A number of Islamist militant groups, including al-Qaeda, operate from bases in Pakistani-administered Kashmir with the tacit permission of Pakistani intelligence. Tension between Islamist, pro-Pakistan groups and the proindependence Kashmiri groups – as well as some local residents – has reportedly intensified in recent years. In June 2007, a land dispute broke out between villagers in Azad Kashmir and the Islamist organization Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JUD), identified by the United States as a terrorist organization. Following the alleged torture of two men and the killing of a 17-year-old boy by JUD members, a mob burned down a temporary hospital the group had established following the 2005 earthquake.

Several hundred families displaced by shelling between Indian and Pakistani forces around the LOC prior to the 2003 ceasefire remain unable to return to their homes and have largely been excluded from earthquake-related assistance schemes. In addition, the Azad Kashmir government manages relief camps for refugees from Indian-administered Kashmir, the bulk of whom arrived after the situation on the Indian side worsened in 1989. Many more of the refugees (roughly 1.5 million) live elsewhere in Azad Kashmir and throughout Pakistan.

The status of women in Pakistani-administered Kashmir is similar to that of women in Pakistan. While the HRCP reports that honor killings and **** occur less frequently than in other areas of Pakistan, domestic violence, forced marriage, and other forms of abuse continue to be issues of concern. Women are not granted equal rights under the law, and their educational opportunities and choice of marriage partner remain circumscribed. In May 2007, the United Nations and other aid agencies temporarily suspended their work after suspected Islamists mounted an arson attack on the home of two aid workers; the organizations had received warnings against hiring women.


UNHCR | Refworld | Freedom in the World 2008 - Kashmir [Pakistan]



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