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| So-called Azad Kashmir is not Azad: Khaled Ahmad | | Message for K separatists | | Early Times Report
JAMMU, Mar 27: Kashmiri separatists have been working since decades for the state's merger with Pakistan, saying J&K is part of Muslim Pakistan. They have been describing India as an alien country and its presence in Kashmir as unwarranted. In fact, they have been working as the Pakistani agents in Kashmir, creating troubles for New Delhi and also harassing non-Muslim minorities. The main argument is that Pakistan is the only country that would give them all democratic rights. Their whole propaganda is misleading and their whole assessment of Pakistan highly flawed.
What is the status of people of the so-called Azad Kashmir in Pakistan? Do they have the rights their counterparts in this part of the state enjoy under the Indian Constitution? It is significant that a distinguished Pakistani and a leading journalist Khaled Ahmad himself the other day commented on the life of the people inhabiting the so-called Azad Kashmir.
It would be only appropriate to quote him verbatim so that no Kashmiri could attach any motive. "The most interesting aspect of the legal governance of Azad Kashmir is the myth expressed in the epithet 'Azad', as opposed to the 'non-azad' part administered by India across the Line of Control. The constitution of Azad Kashmir gives it a lot of symbolic independence - for instance, it has a prime minister whereas Indian Kashmir only has a Chief Minister. But if you read Article 21 of the 1974 Interim Constitution Act passed by the 48-member Azad Jammu and Kashmir Unicameral Assembly in 1974, describing the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Council, it becomes apparent that the AJK PM is as completely subordinated to the PM of Pakistan as the CM of Indian-administered Kashmir is humbled through constitutional amendments. The council is chaired by the PM of Pakistan, and its secretariat virtually runs Azad Kashmir from Islamabad. In fact, the secretary of Kashmir Affairs in Islamabad may be more powerful than the elected PM of Azad Kashmir," he said.
"There's a high court in Azad Kashmir, but an appeal against its decisions lies in the Supreme Court of Pakistan. In 1993, a case was brought to the high court saying that the Northern Areas administered by the federal government separately from Azad Kashmir be re-annexed to Azad Kashmir. The verdict found for the plaintiff and the AJK government was ordered to assume charge of the Northern Areas. An appeal was lodged at the Supreme Court, which reversed the high court judgement: "The contention that the Northern Areas was a part of the state of Jammu and Kashmir was not - and indeed could not - be denied by either government. That the Northern Areas were being looked after by the government of Pakistan administratively by virtue of the 1949 agreement between the two governments was not disputed either. The arguments at the Supreme Court were mainly confined to technicalities of the petition. The government of Pakistan contended that the issues rai-sed were basically political in nature and hence not amenable to discussion and judgment before a court of law. It was further argued that the High Court of Azad Kashmir lacked jurisdiction in this matter and could not issue a writ to the government of Pakistan". All this is spelled out in a book, Indigenous Peoples and Ethnic Minorities of Pakistan: Constitutional and Legal Perspectives (2001) by Shaheen Sardar Ali and Javaid Rehman. Ali is an eminent lady lawyer of Khyber-Pakhtunkhwa and was a minister in the provincial cabinet when the book came out," he further said.
What Khaled Ahmad said was self-explanatory and hence it needs no further elucidation. The question is: Will the Kashmiri separatists and their handful of supporters appreciate what the Pakistani commentator said? No, no, they will not because they are not friends of Kashmiri Muslims; because they are mercenaries fed by the Pakistani Army and the Pakistani ISI. |
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