MUZAFFARABAD, Pakistan-administered Kashmir - "If the
freedom Kashmiris enjoy in Azad [Free] Kashmir is the
model Pakistan has in mind for all Kashmiris, we would
be better off under Indian occupation, though of course
our demand is for independence from both," said
a functionary of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation
Front (Yasin Malik) group who greeted Indian journalists
as soon as they entered Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK).
From here on, the journey was basically a discovery of
how free the Pakistani model of Azad Kashmir really is.
The constitution of Pakistan maintains that the
relationship of Jammu and Kashmir with Pakistan will be
determined by the wishes of the people of the state. AJK
thus is neither a province of Pakistan nor an
independent entity. The AJK government headed by a prime
minister has limited executive powers. The government of
Pakistan maintains complete hold through the AJK
Council. The prime minister of Pakistan chairs the
13-member council. The president of AJK is the vice
chairman and the prime minister of AJK is a mere member
of the council. Islamabad nominates six members to the
council, who are either Pakistani federal ministers or
members of the Pakistan National Assembly. The chairman,
along with these six federal nominees, gives the
government of Pakistan a majority in the council.
It is this council dominated by the prime
minister of Pakistan that controls all development
funds, while the AJK government's powers are limited to
utilization of local revenue generated within the
territory itself. The council's decisions are final and
not subject to judicial review, either by the judiciary
of Pakistan or by that of AJK. Power, however, still
rests with the officials of Pakistan, and the Ministry
of Kashmir Affairs in Islamabad, with regard to all
legislation and appointments, questions of general
policy, budget, internal security and matters relating
to civil supplies. The bureaucracy in AJK is on
deputation from the federal government.
Although
there is much political talk of the Kashmiris' right to
self-determination, the slogan Kashmir banega
Pakistan (Kashmir will become Pakistan) is written
everywhere. Indeed, Part 2 of Section 7 of the
constitution states, "No person or political party in
Azad Jammu and Kashmir shall be permitted to propagate
against or take part in activities prejudicial or
detrimental to the ideology of the state's accession to
Pakistan."
One of the biggest complaints in
Pakistan-administered Kashmir, voiced by nationalist
elements both in AJK and the Northern Areas (NA) [1], is
the lack of political rights given to the people. Some
console themselves with the thought that Pakistani
people themselves have seldom had any political rights,
as most of the time since independence in 1947 Pakistan
has been ruled by military dictators. Pakistani
Kashmiris were completely denied the franchise until
1960, as no elections were held until then. Indirect
elections were then held between 1960 and 1975 through
the system of so-called "basic democracies" propounded
by then ruler General Ayub Khan.
There
is a consensus among
Kashmiri nationalist politicians and intellectuals that
despite the nomenclature of Azad Kashmir, in
effect it is governed through the Ministry of Kashmir
Affairs in Islamabad and through a chief adviser of
the rank of joint secretary. The ministerial post has
often been given to non-Kashmiri politicians from different
areas of Pakistan with no knowledge or experience of
administration in Kashmir. Pakistani officials have
always dominated the Kashmir Council and occupied key
decision-making positions. The chief secretary, the
inspector general of police and the accountant
general and finance secretary all come from
Pakistan. Many in AJK believe the general officer
commanding the Pakistani army at Murree has a big say in
their affairs.
Limited political activity JKLF leader Amanullah Khan points out that though
there are seven or eight pro-independence parties in
AJK, the state's constitution and election laws bar
those who subscribe to the idea of an independent state.
In the 1996 and 2001 elections in Pakistan-administered
Kashmir (PAK), parties and candidates who wished to
participate on the platform of independence and refused
to sign a declaration calling PAK's accession to
Pakistan an article of faith were denied the right to
field candidates.
The residents of PAK are given
limited rights in Pakistan - they may neither vote in
Pakistan's general elections nor hold any public office
there, and they cannot take their grievances to the
Pakistani Supreme Court. They do not have any rights on
the Pakistani national budget.
One major
complaint in both AJK and the NA is against the
September issue of identity cards. These cards omitted a
reference to their status as citizens of Jammu and
Kashmir. The J&K National Students Federation and
the All Parties National Alliance held a meeting at the
Muzaffarabad Press Club on September 8 to protest
against the issue of the cards. The outfits planned mass
burning of the cards and mobilizing of people.
Though there has been no action so far on the
question of the cards, AJK Prime Minister Sardar
Sikandar Hayat announced in reply to a question from
Indian journalists that his ruling All-Jammu and Kashmir
Muslim Conference party would amend the territory's
constitution to abolish the clause requiring would-be
legislators to pledge their belief in accession to
Pakistan before contesting elections.
"We will
abolish this restriction in the future," he said about
the clause in Act 1974, or the interim constitution,
that barred such candidates from election to the 48-seat
legislative assembly who refused to make a pledge in
their nomination papers about their belief in the
accession of the Jammu and Kashmir state to Pakistan.
None of the top politicians the
Indian journalists met could give us a coherent answer to
the persistent question about the degree of autonomy
that the so-called prime ministers, presidents and
local administration officials enjoyed. We met PAK
Premier Khan, President Major-General (retired) Anwar Khan and
Speaker of the PAK assembly Sardar Sayyab Khalid. Each
of them concentrated on the brutality with which the
Indian army treats Kashmiris in the parts Delhi
administers, but none could give a satisfactory answer
to the question of why Pakistan was not able to create a
model for a genuinely free Kashmir, even after 57 years
of administration.
Their stock answer was that with
Kashmir being a disputed territory, its affairs were
in a state of flux; meaning that India was responsible
for the lack of autonomy and development,
even in the Pakistan-administered state.
Pakistani Kashmiris are clearly not prepared to
buy these arguments. A host of nationalist organizations
have started working in both AJK and the NA of PAK. Some
of these are the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, the
J&K Nationalist Liberation Front, the All Parties
National Alliance, the Gilgit-Baltistan National
Alliance, the Balawaristan National Front, the Karakoram
National Movement and the Gilgit-Baltistan Thinkers
Forum. Some of the major leaders of these groups,
Shaukat Kashmiri of the United Kashmir Peoples National
Front, for instance, live in exile after having faced
harassment, torture and detention at the hands of the
military establishment that actually rules these areas,
particularly the NA. But Kashmiri's followers in both
AJK and the NA appeared quite active and courageous
enough to meet Indian journalists in both parts of PAK.
Note [1] Pakistan has divided the
parts of Kashmir under its control into two
administrative units: Azad (Free) Jammu and Kashmir
(AJK) of 5,703 square kilometers and the Northern Areas
(NA) of 72,496 square kilometers. (The total area of the
state of Jammu and Kashmir is 222,236 square kilometers.
Pakistan controls approximately 78,000 square kilometers
of the state.)
AJK, with an estimated population
of 2.5 million, comprises six districts of Muzaffarabad,
Mirpur, Kotli, Poonch, Bagh and Bhimber. The NA consist
of the northwestern part of the erstwhile J&K state
wedged between Afghanistan, North West Frontier Province
in Pakistan and Xinjiang in China. It has a population
of 2.8 million and has been divided administratively
into the five districts of Gilgit, Shardu, Diamir,
Ghizer and Ghanche.
The NA are described as
a kaleidoscope of ethnic groups (Baltis, Shins,
Yashkuns, Mughals, Kashmiris, Pathans, Ladakhis and Turks),
of languages (Balti, Shina, Burushashki, Khowar,
Wakhi, Turki, Tibeti, Pusto and Urdu) and sects
(Shi'ites, Sunnis, Ismailis and Nurbakshis). Shi'ites
constitute about 55% of the population, Sunnis 25%, Ismailis 15%
and Nurbakhshis 5%.
AJK has always claimed
the NA a part of the territory controlled by it in 1947.
The NA have, however, been annexed by Pakistan and are
under its administration, described by dissidents as
"colonial and repressive". Regardless of their distinct
cultural and historical identities, the dissidents point
out, sub-units such as Nagar and Yasin have been unilaterally
integrated within new district boundaries.
Many
people in Pakistan and AJK have urged that the NA be
treated as part of AJK. When the interim constitution of
Azad Kashmir was proclaimed in 1947, the Muzaffarabad
government took the line that the Karachi Agreement,
which had temporarily placed the NA under the control of
Pakistan, had lapsed and that this region should de jure
and de facto revert to Azad Kashmir, to which it
legitimately belonged. The federal government of
Pakistan resisted that effort and has maintained that
the NA are an integral part of Pakistan.
Pakistan maintains an ambivalent stand over the
status of the NA in the context of its demand for the
resolution of the "Kashmir issue" through a plebiscite
as per United Nations resolutions of 1948. It has never
clearly defined the constitutional status of the NA.
Pakistan clearly desires to integrate the NA into
Pakistan, distinguishing it from AJK. It seeks to
differentiate between the NA and Kashmir in the
expectation that, in case such a plebiscite is ever
held, the NA would vote for Pakistan.
Nothing
could make Pakistani intentions regarding Kashmir
clearer than the ambiguity about the NA. Pakistan would
clearly like to keep this mountainous portion of the
state in its own control, even in the event of Kashmiris
exercising their third option of independence, the other
two options being accession to India or Pakistan.
Frustrated
over the years with the stonewalling tactics
of the government of Pakistan over granting autonomy
to the NA, three public representatives of the NA,
Malik Maskeen, Hajij Ameer Jan and Sheikh Abdul Aziz filed
a write petition under Section 44 of the Pakistan-Occupied
Kashmir (POK) Interim Constitution Act of
1974 with the POK high court on October 16, 1990. In its
verdict on March 8, 1993, the full bench of the Azad
Kashmir High Court declared the NA to be a part of the
territory of Jammu & Kashmir.
The
chief justice of the High Court who delivered this
judgment, now-retired justice Majeed Malik, heads a political
party in AJK, demanding independence from both India and
Pakistan. He gave visiting Indian journalists a copy of
his historic judgment published in the form of a book.
This book has become a kind of Bible for
independence-loving Kashmiris in Pakistan. People quote
chapter and verse from the book to prove that the NA
belongs to Kashmir and not to Pakistan. This is a point
to which even pro-establishment politicians have to show
allegiance. It is difficult to find anyone in AJK or the
NA who doesn't agree with the High Court judgment.
Regardless of the wishes of the Kashmiri people,
however, the people of the NA are ruled directly from
Islamabad through what is called the Northern Areas
Council, which is headed by Pakistan's minister for
Kashmir affairs. A chief executive, normally a retired
Pakistani army officer, appointed by Islamabad, is the
local administrative head. The council is headed by the
minister of Kashmir and Northern Areas and meets only
when the minister convenes it.
Complicating the
Kashmir tangle further, Pakistan unilaterally ceded a
part of the state to China. They concluded a "Boundary
Agreement" in March 1963 under which Pakistan handed
over more than 5,180 square kilometers of territory
under its occupation to China, ignoring India's
objections. Pakistan gave away the entire area belonging
to Hunza, south of the Mintaka Pass, to China. India
challenged the locus standi of both parties to
negotiate and conclude an agreement in respect of the
territory of the state of Jammu & Kashmir, over
which India had sovereign rights. India protested to
both China and Pakistan, indicating that it would not
recognize the illegal transfer of territory forming part
of the state of Jammu & Kashmir.
TOMORROW: Gilgit valley searches for
identity
Sultan Shahin is a New
Delhi-based writer.
(Copyright 2004 Asia
Times Online Ltd. All rights reserved. Please contact us
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PART 2: The Pakistani model
of freedom
