MUZAFFARABAD: Former prime minister of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) Raja Farooq Haider has alleged that the existing executive in the liberated territory was brought to rubber stamp the division of Kashmir.

“A chaotic situation has been created in Azad Kashmir for some time and the younger lot is becoming its fuel either intentionally or unintentionally. People are being made mistrustful of the current system under a conspiracy.”

He said the state of affairs in AJK was being referred to and discussed in subcommittees of the United Nations and those who had brought and those who had been operating the present administration in the liberated territory were responsible for it.

He was speaking to a gathering at the mausoleum of former AJK president Mirwaiz Maulvi Mohammad Yousaf Shah in the old part of Muzaffarabad on the occasion of his death anniversary which is marked on Ramazan 16 every year.

The late Mirwaiz who was the chief cleric of his time in Kashmir valley, twice held the office of AJK president, though for brief terms in 1951-52 and 1956 after he migrated to the liberated territory after 1947 from across the divide. Mr Haider made it clear that there could be no compromise on the security and dignity of Pakistan as well as the identity of the state.

“We will fight every conspiracy against the status of the liberated territory until the final settlement of the issue of Kashmir in accordance with the wishes and aspirations of Kashmiris,” he said.

“I will continue to speak the truth, no one can stop me from doing so.” The former AJK premier also made it clear that Pakistan and India could not be seen from the same point of view, nor were they equal in the eyes of the Kashmiri people.

“Those who talk about ousting Pakistan [from AJK] are working on India’s agenda…Shame on those who refer ‘Azad Kashmir’ as ‘Azab (scourge) Kashmir’ on social media. They should ask the people of occupied Kashmir what has been happening to them,” he said.

“These few people who suffer from mental disorders do not have a sizable following which is why they vent their frustration through gibberish talk on social media,” he added.

Mr Haider asserted that his generation was resisting the division of Kashmir on the one hand and maintaining love for Pakistan on the other.

“However, this chaos is being spread [in AJK] to make this system worthless in the eyes of the people and create hatred among them against the current system and Pakistan.”

The former prime minister said the real owners of the state of Jammu and Kashmir were the bona fide residents of this region and they would decide its future status rather than those sitting in Islamabad, New Delhi or New York.

“The only way to reach an amicable settlement lies in holding a free, fair and impartial plebiscite for which hundreds of thousands of Kashmiris have sacrificed their lives. And the UN resolution of August 13, 1948 lays the basis for it because it reflects the unrestricted right of self-determination.”

Published in Dawn, March 29th, 2024