Polling in 41 constituencies of Azad Kashmir (AJK) Legislative Assembly was held on Thursday. 41 is also the
number of people killed by the Indian forces till the night before the elections in the latest surge of violence in Indian held Kashmir (IHK).
The juxtaposition of the two parts of the bifurcated land of Kashmir would’ve given Pakistani politicians a sensation of sadistic euphoria. After all, what ‘better’ time to woo Kashmiris in Pakistan Administered Kashmir than a period when Kashmiris across the LoC were being brutally victimised?
It was political goldmine. But one for 2018.
The AJK elections themselves are a
facade, of course. The territory will be governed by the federal government regardless. But the way to a Pakistani voter’s heart often traverses Kashmir. Hence, political hedonism in Pakistan encourages steaming the stew while Kashmir burns.
That Pakistan’s least autonomous region’s name is prefixed with ‘Azad’ (Free) perfectly epitomises Islamabad’s idea of freedom for Kashmir. This is precisely why jihadist Hizb-ul-Mujahideen is
presented as the face of Kashmiri struggle while Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) and the United Kashmir People’s National Party (PNP) have been
sidelined in AJK and IHK, with more than just the well-wishes of the Pakistani establishment.
Regardless of the
lies that Pakistan rehashes at the UN, freedom for Kashmir in Islamabad – and especially Rawalpindi – is
synonymous with accession to Pakistan. This is why jihadist groups that hobnob with the who’s who of South Asian terror outfits are projected as freedom fighters, while groups like JKLF that gave up militancy for a political struggle for independence have been completely purged out in AJK.
While JKLF’s
Kashmir banega khudmukhtar (Kashmir will become independent) was being replaced with Hizb’s
Kashmir banega Pakistan (Kashmir will become Pakistan), the number of Kashmiris being killed increased in synchrony. And the more Kashmiris died chanting the latter, the stronger Pakistan’s case at the UN became – through no play of coincidence.
But of course, in the real world – that isn’t headquartered by Jihadist Utopia – there was no better way for Pakistan to strengthen its case than by showcasing freedom in ‘Azad’ Kashmir. A good measure of that would be to count the number of pro-freedom parties participating in yesterday’s AJK polling.
AJK Constitution’s Part 2, Section 7 reads:
No person or political party in Azad Jammu and Kashmir shall be permitted to…take part in activities… detrimental to the ideology of the state’s accession to Pakistan.
AJK Legislative Assembly Election Ordinance’s Section 5 (2) (vii) reads:
A person will be disqualified for propagating any opinion or action in any manner prejudicial to… the ideology of state’s [sic] accession to Pakistan…
This effectively means that anyone not taking oath declaring that Kashmir is an integral part of Pakistan cannot – and does not – contest elections in AJK. The same is also true for any government employee in AJK.
The heavy military presence in a disputed territory is understandable. The 22
militant camps where jihadists are taught and trained, is not. Banning books which are contrary to ‘the state’s accession to Pakistan’ or quashing independent journalism – is not either.
Books like Saeed Asad’s
Shaur-e-Farda have been
banned simply for containing JKLF founder Maqbool Butt’s letters.
Meanwhile, Reuters correspondent Waheed Kiyani was abducted after covering a Kashmir Unity Conference in 2003, where only four of around 300 delegates voted for accession (two each for India and Pakistan) and the rest voting for independence. After Kiyani was released, the then AJK President Sardar Muhammad Anwar Khan
told him, ‘Be grateful you are alive and offer thanksgiving prayers’ on the stage while addressing a seminar in Muzaffarabad.
Syed Salahuddin, Hizb’s Spiritual Commander and United Jihad Council’s (UJC) chairman, also addressed a
press conference in Muzaffarabad days after taking responsibility of the Pathankot attack in January this year. This was when Pakistani security forces were launching crackdowns in Bahawalpur ‘to find the perpetrators of the Pathankot attack’.
While Rawalpindi’s double-play on Kashmir bound jihadists was in full flow post Pathankot attack, Islamabad was considering transforming Gilgit-Baltistan (GB) into
Pakistan’s fifth province, amidst protests by the AJK and GB officials and activists. The decision to compromise Jammu & Kashmir’s territorial integrity and Kashmiris’ united stand for autonomy and freedom is being mulled because
Beijing doesn’t want CPEC to enter Pakistan through a disputed territory.
And so, the federal government considering annexation of GB; the establishment nourishing Kashmir-bound terror groups; the AJK Constitution demanding an oath of accession to Pakistan from any policymaker; the clergy using the plight of a people to further its Islamist agenda and the media stuffing air-time and print spaces over matters currently in Indian control; highlights how Pakistani state institutions have collectively failed Kashmir in order to score points in their respective spheres of interest.
In highlighting Indian atrocities while hiding our own, not only are Pakistani institutions ‘cashing in’ on Kashmiri plight, they’re actually exacerbating it. Hizb and Burhan Wani, that are being
eulogised by the liberal and conservative sections alike, are affiliated with terror groups responsible for abducting and killing Kashmiris in AJK as well. The Kashmiri blood that the likes of Harkat-ul- Mujahideen, Lashkar-e-Taiba, Jaish-e-Mohammad and Harkat-ul-Jihad-e-Islami have on their hands, isn’t only limited to the other side of the LoC.
It is because of the combined failure of all our state institutions in Kashmir that Pakistan’s counter-terror strategy and the
National Action Plan (NAP) can’t help being a sham. For once we start disowning jihadist groups in Kashmir we would have to give in to the will of the Kashmiri people. And despite three decades of Islamist propaganda, the will of the entire people of Kashmir, isn’t necessarily represented by those shouting
Kashmir banayga Pakistan the loudest.
http://muslimworldtoday.org/2016/07/pakistan-failed-kashmir-ajk/
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