Pak Kashmir&the Death of Democracy

[Guest guest]

"Azad Kashmir" and "Northern Territories" or Pakistan Occupied

Kashmir (POK)?

 

The Struggle for Self-Determination and Democratic Rights

 

International attention on Kashmir has invariably focused on the

tensions and conflict between Kashmiri separatists and the Indian

government. Any discussion on self-determination or human rights is

routinely prefaced on the assumption that the situation in Pakistan-

held Kashmir is "normal", that the Pakistani government is

a "friend" of the Kashmiri people, and it is only the Indian

government that is hostile to the "genuine interests" of the people

of Kashmir.

 

Yet, Amir Humza Qureshi, founder of the Gilgit-Baltistan Jamhoori

Mahaz, and jailed on several occasions for trying to represent the

interests of the people of Gilgit (one of the districts in Pakistan-

held Kashmir which Pakistan euphemistically describes as "Northern

Areas") counters this view. In a letter to the Urdu daily, Jasarat,

Amir Humza Qureshi, wrote: "It is a fact that people of this region

(Northern Areas) are facing more human rights violations and

whenever the official (Pakistani) media talks of repression in

(Indian) Kashmir, people with strong hearts laugh at this

hypocritical attitude, and people with weak hearts cry."

 

"India is not perpetrating even one hundredth part of the repression

that people spread over an area of 28,000 miles have been facing for

the past 50 years. The Indian Government has given people all their

fundamental human rights and in spite of that they are in a state of

confrontation against the government. But the people of this region

(Northern Areas) are far behind the rest of the world in matters of

fundamental human rights, justice and economic development."

 

(See http://www.jammu-kashmir.com/insights/insight980201.html)

 

This is in stark contrast to those in the Islamic movement that see

Indian Kashmir as territory that needs to be liberated from the

clutches of India, and see any retreat from confrontation with India

(regarding Kashmir) as a betrayal of the "Islamic" cause. For

instance, an opinion piece on khilafah.com argues: "Therefore, the

only way forward for Kashmir is to liberate it physically and return

the rule back to Islam. This is the verdict from Islam and as

Muslims we are required to accept the judgement of Allah (Subhanahu

Wa ta'aala). The obligation lies on the Pakistani army to move and

overthrow this illegitimate Pakistani regime (i.e. the Musharraf

regime), and give its support (nussrah) to the sincere sons of this

Ummah who are calling for the re-establishment of the Islamic

Khilafah State which will work to reunite the land of Kashmir with

the land of Pakistan and one day Insha-Allah, the whole of India.

(Note that this view considers not just Kashmir as part of

the "Islamic Khilafah State" but all of India as well.)

 

Rasulullah (Sallallahu alaihi wasallam) said in a hadith,"The

killing of a Muslim is to Allah worse than the end of the World".

Now in Kashmir, Musharraf prepares to betray the Ummah yet again.

America pushed Pakistan and India to the brink of a `war' neither

side can afford, so as to provide the cover and moral climate for

Musharraf (America's proxy dictator) to arrest, eliminate and

dismantle the Mujahideen; who during the Kargil incident, came

heroically close to defeating the Hindu army.

 

But such views are not shared by the majority of the people living

in Pakistan held Kashmir. In fact, human rights leaders in Pakistan-

held Kashmir describe it as "Occupied Kashmir" (POK) insisting that

only the "Pakistani part of Kashmir can be considered occupied".

And that is why virtually all the governments in Pakistan (military

or civilian) have gone to great lengths to suppress the democratic

voice of the people living in POK. Pakistan has deliberately kept

the status of POK (comprising "Azad Kashmir" and the "Northern

Areas") ambiguous, neither allowing them to secede, nor allowing

these territories to be fully integrated into Pakistan.

 

Residents of the sparsely populated, and ethnically and

linguistically diverse "Northern Areas" assert that they have no

legal status. They are neither a province of Pakistan nor a part

of "Azad Kashmir". They are ruled directly from Islamabad through a

Northern Areas Council which is headed by Pakistan's Minister for

Kashmir Affairs. An Islamabad-appointed chief executive, (normally

a retired Pakistani military officer), is the local administrative

head. The Northern Areas Council meets only when Pakistan's Minister

for Kashmir Affair convenes it. According to supporters of Amir

Humza Qureshi, the Northern Areas were annexed by Pakistan through

an illegal attack in 1947 even before India and Pakistan became

independent. This was possible due to the chicanery of the British

colonial authorities (who at that time controlled the armies in

Pakistan and India). The British rulers ensured that the Pakistani

flag was unfurled in Gilgit even before they had conferred

independence on Pakistan.

 

Although political activity is severely repressed, political

organizations such as the Balawaristan National Front (BNF) have

emerged to take on the Pakistani government in the Northern Areas.

The Gilgit Baltistan United Action Forum for Self Rule has been

demanding the right to self-rule. Another party, the Muttehada Quami

Party (MQP) wants to attain a status comparable to that of "Azad"

Kashmir. Many other groups however remain underground since any

overt organizing or expression of political will, even peaceful

protests have led to arbitrary arrests and long jail terms. Even

demonstrations by students in Gilgit struggling against high

unemployment have been brutally crushed.

 

According to supporters of the BNF, the "Northern Areas" have no

university and no professional colleges. The government has set up

only 12 high schools and two regional colleges with no post graduate

facilities. Very few locals are able to get government jobs, and

when they do, they are paid 25 per cent less than non-native

entrants from Pakistan's Punjab province. The mainstay of the

economy is agriculture, but since much of the land is held by a

small minority of very privileged landlords, and since the absence

of democratic rights has allowed the perpetuation of feudal

relations, the majority of the people live in sheer misery. In

addition, poverty and high taxes have forced many of the smaller

land-holders to sell their lands to rich settlers from the plains.

Although there have been efforts by local NGOs to set up village

schools, literacy remains very low. While 45-50% of boys are now

enrolled in school in some villages, the enrolment of girls is much

lower (less than 15% in many cases). 55 years after it's annexation

by Pakistan, adult literacy in the Northern Areas is 14 per cent

for males and 3.5 per cent for women. There are no local dailies, or

local radio or television stations. According to the most recently

available data, there is just one doctor for 6,000 people. Piped

water supply is virtually non-existent. And two thirds of the

population must do without electricity in an area where winters are

extremely harsh.

 

K2, Gilgit-Baltistan's only weekly carries the following on it's

mast-head: 'Sarzamin-Be-Ain Ki Awaz' (the voice of the constitution-

less). One of the biggest obstacles faced by the people of Gilgit-

Baltistan has been the systematic campaign of terror and

discrimination waged against the region's Shia population. Shias

who comprised over 75% of the original inhabitants of the land now

risk being outnumbered due to the continuous settling of non-locals

(mostly Punjabis) in the region, who now make up almost 40% of the

territories' population.

 

Journalist Sriram Chaulia has noted how expropriation of land and

residence rights of natives in POK stands in sharp contrast to

strictly adhered provisions in the Indian constitution disallowing

non-Kashmiris to acquire property in J&K. Far from a `special

status' that India's Article 370 grants to J&K, Northern Areas of

POK lack any constitutional status whatsoever.

 

According to an Aug 3, 2001 report in the Times of India, Abdul

Hamid Khan, chairman of BNF, called upon the United Nations and the

International Court of Justice to book Musharraf and other Pakistani

generals as "war criminals for the genocide" carried out by them in

the "Northern Areas". In his letter to the UN (a copy of which was

also sent to Indian Prime Minister Atal Bihari Vajpayee), the BNF

leader noted that the Pakistani government and particularly its

military were settling their own armed citizens and Afghan and other

terrorists besides increasing the presence of "their notorious

intelligence agencies (i.e. the ISI) in Balwaristan to turn the

indigenous people into a minority. Comparing Gen. Musharraf to

former military ruler Gen. Zia who had played a heinous role in 1988

and 1999 by launching a "genocide campaign" against the innocent

indigenous people, he further asserted that more than 900 youth had

been killed, 1,000 had became disabled or wounded, while 40 were

still missing and several civilian buildings were destroyed due to

Pakistan sponsored terrorist activities. Abdul Hamid Khan also

stated that political and human rights activities were completely

denied by Pakistan as a result of which more than 100 politically

active people were facing sedition cases and "no impartial judicial

system existed in Balawaristan."

 

The situation in "Azad Kashmir" is only marginally better. Even as

Pakistan's military readers keep up the sham of championing "self

determination" for Indian Kashmir, for "Azad Kashmir" i.e. POK, self

determination, (as inscribed in the constitution), relates only to

the unconditional accession of Jammu and Kashmir to Pakistan. Part 2

of Section 7 of the POK 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".

 

Under Section 5(2) (vii) of the POK Legislative Assembly Election

Ordinance 1970, a person would be disqualified for propagating any

opinion or action in any manner prejudicial to the ideology of

Pakistan, the ideology of POK's accession to Pakistan, or the

sovereignty and integrity of Pakistan. The same caveat applies to

anyone who "defames or brings into ridicule the judiciary of AJK, of

Pakistan, or the Armed Forces of Pakistan".

 

In 1991, POK's " Prime Minister", Mumtaz Rathore was dismissed,

arrested and flown by helicopter to a Pakistani prison in 1991. In

the 1996 elections in POK, parties and candidates who wished to

participate on the platform of independence and refused to sign the

declaration calling POK's accession to Pakistan an article of faith,

were denied the right to field candidates. The oath of office for

the President, PM, Minister, Speaker, MLA or MLC of POK clearly

includes the following clause: "That I will remain loyal to the

country (Pakistan) and the cause of accession of the state of Jammu

and Kashmir to Pakistan".

 

But such oaths are completely one-sided since the residents of POK

are given no rights in Pakistan - they may neither vote in

Pakistan's general elections, nor take their grievances to the

Pakistani Supreme Court. Nor may they hold any public office in

Pakistan. Nor do they have any rights on the Pakistan National

Budget. But even those who go along with such insulting inequities

are then treated shabbily by the Pakistan authorities. After the

elections in June 1996, the "President" of POK, Sikander Hayat Khan,

was removed through a voice vote in the Assembly.

 

It has been further pointed out that the POK legislative assembly

lacks few powers since it requires Islamabad's prior approval for

all enactments of statutory rules, appointments, public property,

budget, loans, taxes, internal security and civil supplies.

Administrative justice handled by an Executive Council of 15 (7 of

them non-Kashmiris) that is directly responsible to the Pakistani

government.

 

Dissident voices have been continuously suppressed. Shaukat Ali

Kashmiri, chairman of the United Kashmir People's National Party

(UKPNP) based in POK, was picked up by men from the Pakistani

security forces near Bagh and reportedly tortured. The London-based

Kashmir International Front (KIF), which is the international office

for several political groups fighting Pakistani occupation of

Kashmir, sent out appeals for his release.

 

After his release, Shaukat Ali Kashmiri (who has now taken refuge in

Switzerland) condemned the killing of innocent villagers by the

Pakistan-backed terrorists, observing: "What kind of freedom

struggle is that which kills its own people. We cannot continue like

this where the foreign mercenaries continue to kill the local

inhabitants". He also criticized the Pakistan Government for

detaining several leaders of Balwaristan, Gilgit and PoK for

speaking against Gen Pervez Musharraf.

 

Chairman of the Jammu and Kashmir Peace Committee, Anwar Khan,

pointed out that Pakistan had been regarded as the aggressor in the

region by earlier UN resolutions and hence should vacate the

occupied territory. The Jammu and Kashmir Human Rights Movement

(JKHRM) has stated that the Pakistani army intelligence and Pak-

occupied-Kashmir (PoK) authorities were committing inhuman

atrocities and large scale repression on political parties and

workers demanding withdrawal of illegal Pakistani army occupation

the area. Justice (Retd) Mohd Akram, president of the JKHRM has

listed specific human rights violations by Pakistan intelligence

agencies and PoK police noting that Saloom Awan, vice president of

NAP had been subjected to inhuman torture by Pakistan ISI and state

secret agencies and had to flee the country as his life was in

danger, Justice Akram said, adding there were several "examples of

physical elimination of political leaders in PoK."

 

Toronto based 'Council of Advocates International' released a report

on human rights violations in PoK last year in which it pointed to

how terrorist groups harassed and blackmailed ordinary residents. It

specifically noted how Mushtaq Ali and Naseer Khawaja were contacted

by a group of Muzaffarabad-based "militant" leaders. The two were

asked to transport arms across the border into India. But when they

refused, the two were threatened with dire consequences. The next

day they were arrested by the ISI and held incommunicado in a house

for ten days. They were brutally tortured and humiliated. After

their release the local police started harassing them and threatened

to charge them with theft, arms trading and other

criminal acts. They were forced to leave Muzaffarabad and are now in

hiding. The report also cites cases of sexual assault and repeated

rape.

 

It is little wonder that Amir Humza Qureshi has said that people of

the Northern Areas "face more Human Rights Violations than anywhere

else in the world". Most recently, Altaf Qadiri, secretary general

of the Hurriyat Conference's Pakistan chapter was quoted by

Pakistani newspaper Daily Times as having told reporters: "...The

present government in PoK is worse than the Farooq Abdullah

government (of Indian Kashmir)" (As reported on July 26, in the

Indian Express)

 

That such a statement should emanate from a group widely perceived

as being anti-Indian, and who for long was considered the main, even

sole "legitimate" voice of the Kashmiri people ought to be the

greatest indictment of Pakistan's claim to be the greatest "upholder

and champion of Kashmiri self-determination". Contrary to all the

rhetorical bombast, the Pakistani military is, in fact, one of the

greatest hindrances to the realization of self-determination in

multi-ethnic, multi-lingual and multi-religious Jammu and Kashmir.

 

 

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