The contrast could not be starker. In the throes of its first election to the assembly that stands dissolved and the statehood itself annulled, myriad issues are being debated in Jammu and Kashmir. Among them are the return to statehood, the special status it enjoyed under Article 370 of the Constitution, its people’s peace and economic prosperity, the threat from militancy within, and the dark shadow of the influx of terrorists from the neighbourhood.
To parties from the Kashmir Valley seeking a return to the special status, the Union government, apparently enthused by the 58 per cent voter turnout in the Lok Sabha elections, says statehood when feasible, but no special status.
Talking to Pakistan? Yes, no, not now, or never? Not till peace is restored? Does New Delhi admit that it has failed to achieve it in the last five years? Leave all these and more to the outcome of the most crucial election in the life of one of the world’s most militarized and India’s most troubled places – where tourists go despite the terror threat.
Now, look at the conditions across the Line of Control (LoC) that separates the territory in dispute for 77 years, and counting. Retired Indian diplomat Dinkar P. Srivastava aptly calls it the “Forgotten Kashmir” in his book that focuses on the other side of the LoC.
Reports from Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir/Azad Jammu and Kashmir and Gilgit-Baltistan constantly speak of public protests over food shortages, and forced migration. It is ruled directly from Islamabad with the Pakistan army calling all the shots.
But viewed from the outside, the absence of democracy for one, is ignored for the most part by the flag-bearers of democracy, especially the former colonial masters who laid the ground for the dispute in the first place for their larger geostrategic interests.
Strangely, even in India which claims the entire territory and sovereignty over it, the discourse rarely looks across the LoC. It is mostly Jammu versus the Valley, more polarized than ever in recent times.
Strangely again, but not surprisingly, it is forgotten by the Pakistani people also. The people of Pakistan-Occupied Kashmir have “neither azadi nor autonomy”, Srivastava says, “They do not figure in the discourse of Pakistani leaders. They are forgotten in their ‘obsession’ with the Kashmir cause.” Srivastava bemoans the shedding of much blood for this ‘cause’ which has Pakistan waging four bloody conflicts with India with clear objectives and plans, of ‘conquering’ Kashmir.
Only, the world is losing interest in Pakistan’s ‘cause’. The Muslim brethren Iran and Saudi Arabia and even China, the “all-weather friend”, have of late asked for a “peaceful resolution through talks”.
Unlike in the past, resolutions blaming India by the Organization of Islamic Countries (OIC) have become fewer. The last one, passed in 2022 was because Pakistan was hosting the meet. This was after chiding in the Pakistani media that the world community was ignoring the ‘cause’ and even the Muslim Ummah was eager to “do business” with India.
Pakistan is in a prolonged political and economic mess. But even otherwise, people in PoK/AJK either have no jobs or lose them to “reliable Outsiders” from other provinces. The government prosecutes the ‘nationalists’ while the population, shifted frequently as part of combating militancy, is targeted by the militants as well.
Srivastava says the China-Pakistan Economic Corridor (CPEC) entering through the territory which Pakistan had illegally ceded to China may promise prosperity to Pakistan, but it has turned Gilgit Baltistan, known for beautiful mountains and river systems into a cluster of military garrisons.
His book meticulously goes into the minutiae of constitutional developments as well as governance in both Azad Kashmir and Gilgit Baltistan and details how the people in the area have been systematically denied their fundamental rights and ruthlessly exploited by Pakistan.
Human Rights Watch (HRW), the global rights watchdog has covered the situation inside POK in its report With Friends Like These…. It states: “In practice, the Pakistani government in Islamabad, the Pakistani army and the Pakistani intelligence services (Inter-Services Intelligence) control all aspects of political life in Azad Kashmir-though Azad means free, the residents of Azad Kashmir are anything but.
“Azad Kashmir is a land of strict curbs on political pluralism, freedom of expression, and freedom of association; a muzzled press; banned books; arbitrary arrest and detention and torture at the hands of the Pakistani military and the police; and discrimination against refugees from Jammu and Kashmir state.”
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HRW scathingly records: “Singled out are Kashmiri nationalists who do not support the idea of Kashmir’s accession to Pakistan. Anyone who wants to take part in public life has to sign a pledge of loyalty to Pakistan, while anyone who publicly supports or works for an independent Kashmir is persecuted. For those expressing independent or unpopular political views, there is a pervasive fear of Pakistani military and intelligence services and of militant organizations acting at their behest or independently.”
Ironically, POK/AJK generates over a third of Pakistan’s around 8,000 MW hydropower. But it has neither political power, nor does it benefit from the power (energy) it generates. It has to pay a steep tariff, higher than other provinces, amidst power cuts and breakdowns.
Pakistan assumed direct powers within the POK after the 13th Amendment to the PoK Constitution in 2018. Going deeply into how Pakistan has colonised the PoK/AJK, Srivastava brings out that the situation of Gilgit-Baltistan is much worse than that of PoK. While elections based on the adult franchise were held in PoK in 1970, the Northern Area, now called Gilgit-Baltistan, had to wait till 2009 before it got an elected assembly.
Gilgit-Baltistan Order of 2009 gave limited autonomy and allowed the local assembly to legislate on 161 subjects. The entire list was abolished under the Gilgit-Baltistan Order of 2018. There were popular protests, and the G-B Supreme Appellate Court set aside the Order, much to Islamabad’s discomfiture. With these far-reaching internal changes within PoK and G-B, both are integrated in Pakistan in all but name. This was done by Pakistan a year before the deletion of Article 370 by India.
Professor Ishtiaque Ahmed, a renowned Sweden-based Pakistani scholar, although disagreeing with Srivastava on some points, commends his effort: “The most impressive feature of the book is that it relies heavily on Pakistani source material. Also referenced are reports of the International Crisis Group (ICG). I checked some of the material used and found that the references to Pakistani and international sources were indeed correct.”
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