Khawaja Asif urges JAAC to let AJK voters decide fate of refugee seats
Why this matters: local context for readers following news across Pakistan and the region.
As tensions persist in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK), Defence Minister Khawaja Asif on Thursday urged the now proscribed Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) to let the people of the region decide whether the 12 refugee seats should be abolished. The regional administration and the JAAC remain at odds over various issues, most notably the committee’s demand to abolish the 12 seats in the region’s Legislative Assembly that are reserved for refugees from Indian-occupied Jammu and Kashmir who settled in mainland Pakistan after 1947. Speaking on the floor of the National Assembly, the defence minister called on the JAAC to raise the issue in the upcoming elections, scheduled for July 27, and “take the issue to the public”. He questioned why the group was intent on deciding the issue pre-emptively, suggesting that it might be an attempt to shape the assembly “as per their will”. Asif noted that Kashmiri refugees settled in Pakistan had paid a “heavy price” to migrate to the country, and that the JAAC had no right to demand the “taking away of their right to vote”. “The AJK that we have today is due to the sacrifices made by the Pakistan armed forces and people from across the country, not just Kashmiris,” the defence minister said, asserting that 250 million Pakistanis had a “stake” in the region. He held that there was a story in every Pakistani household of the sacrifices made for the disputed region. “Does that mean nothing? I do not want to take names, but what have they sacrificed for Kashmir? They do not have any stake, nor have they invested anything in the liberation of Kashmir,” the defence minister said. The defence czar warned that if people took the law into their own hands, the government could not be expected to “stay silent”. He also recalled that Kashmiri refugees in his constituency did not have access to basic facilities such as electricity and gas due to uncertainty surrounding their status. However, “we had their status finalised”, he said, reiterating