Seemingly, people in Azad Kashmir have come out of a prolonged hibernation. Not the corrupt practices in development sector, corruption in public health and engineering, unbridled unemployment, but only an unscheduled and prolonged loadshedding in the region have provoked them to gear up a protest movement. When heavy police contingents arrived at the scene of protest on lastThursday as the protesters tried to enter the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly it reminded the residents of Muzaffarabad of a similar situation in 2009 when current president of azad Kashmir Sardar Yaqoob Khan was acting as prime minister and he was put under extreme pressure to resign.
In October 2009, the then Prime Minister of Azad Kashmir Sardar Yaqoob Khan had resigned, just a few hours before a no confidence motion was being forwarded against him. Later, in his address he declared that he had done so to avoid political controversy in the legislative assembly.
Governments in AJK (Pakistan administered part of Jammu & Kashmir) have never been free, independent and self-supporting. Despite the fact that governance has always been at the mercy of whimsical attitude of those who sit in the power corridors of Islamabad and Murree ( the headquarters of a mountain division of Pakistan Army is permanently based here), the local politicians of Pakistani Kashmir could equally be blamed for a continuous saga of bad gove4rnance, poor administration and mismanagement. The AJK brands of almost all of the mainstream political parties of Pakistan have also sufficed to the tale of woes of people here. Deliberate efforts are made to keep the local populace unaware of the manipulative contrivance s of the local politicians and federally appointed military and civil servants and members of the authoritarian AJK Council, which is headed by prime minister of Pakistan.
Though, the democratic era dawned in AJK in early 70s, people of this region are still groping in the darkness of autocratic, manipulative and suppressive rule. Since the establishment of an interim government in the state of Azad Jammu and Kashmir in October 1948, all affairs of the state, except defense, currency and foreign relations, were supposed to be run by its own people through an elected government. However, the first ever elected government took 25 years to come into existence in 1974 only after an interim constitution of the state was adopted. The successive governments in Pakistani Kashmir have shown a tendency of being manipulated, suppressed by internal and external pressures and finally dissolved in most humiliating conditions. Though, Prime Minister Yaqoob Khan , while speaking to media , deliberately used words to express his forbearance against any kind of internal or external pressure, his gestures spoke well of his two-day marathon sessions with those who actually rule the state. He thanked God for not making any decision of dissolving the legislative assembly, but, who knows who will return in the next election? Particularly, when there is a long list of would-be prime ministers, no one can afford going back to the arduous exercise of seeking vote from people. Surely, a true politician, despite of begging help from undemocratic forces, would like to go back to his people during a political storm.
The no confidence move against Prime Minister Sardar Yaqoob Khan could be a surprise for those who were not much aware of the internal political dynamics of AJK, but, for those who sit on the helm of political conspiracies in AJK, it was yet another episode of ‘divide-and-rule’ drama.
Pakistan Peoples Party has always been proud of its legacy to stick the democratic norms. But , quite surprisingly, the PPP leadership including the prime minister and the president were meddling in the affairs of Pakistan administrative Azad Kashmir in sheer violation of their Constitutional duties. Again, the local leadership of AJK is equally responsible for their undemocratic approach the Centre.
Photo Courtesy: Daily Dharti , Rawalakot.
1 comment:
Very sad situation.
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