"Azad Kashmir" and "Northern Territories" or Pakistan Occupied Kashmir (***)?
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
Revolt Brewing in the so-called Northern Areas of Pakistan Occupied Kashmir)
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" (***) 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 ***. Pakistan has deliberately kept the status of *** (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 *** 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 *** 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. ***, 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 *** 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 *** 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 ***'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, ***'s " Prime Minister", Mumtaz Rathore was dismissed, arrested and flown by helicopter to a Pakistani prison in 1991. In the 1996 elections in ***, parties and candidates who wished to participate on the platform of independence and refused to sign the declaration calling ***’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 *** 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 *** 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 ***, Sikander Hayat Khan, was removed through a voice vote in the Assembly.
It has been further pointed out that the *** 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 ***, 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 *** 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 (***) 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 *** 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 ***."
Toronto based 'Council of Advocates International' released a report on human rights violations in *** 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 *** 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.
http://india_resource.tripod.com/***.html
by readin ur post its very clear to me where u belong to, simply another ak-47 we have here.
