ISLAMABAD: Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif will chair a special meeting today, Monday, to discuss ongoing protests in Azad Kashmir, the portion of the disputed Himalayan valley administered by Pakistan, state media reported, with demonstrators expected to resume their march to the federal capital of Islamabad over the prices of wheat and power.
The Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC) is leading the protests and demanding subsidized wheat flour and that electricity prices be set as per the hydropower generation cost in Azad Kashmir.
On Saturday, a policeman was killed in clashes between police and demonstrators as authorities blocked a rally from moving toward Azad Kashmir’s capital, Muzaffarabad, from the region’s Poonch and Kotli districts. Weekend talks between the JAAC core committee and AJK Chief Secretary Dawood Bareach in Rawalakot ended in a stalemate and a planned march by protesters to the capital is set to resume today.
The Himalayan territory of Kashmir has been divided between India and Pakistan since their independence from Britain in 1947, with both countries ruling part of the territory, but claiming it in full. The western portion of the larger Kashmir region is administered by Pakistan as a nominally self-governing entity while India rules the southern portion of the larger Kashmir region as a union territory.
While the Indian portion has been an ongoing insurgency and multiple armed attempts by the state to quell it, the Pakistani side has remained relatively calm through the decades, though it is also highly militarized.
“Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has convened a high-level meeting on Monday, which will discuss the ongoing situation in Azad Jammu and Kashmir,” state-run Associated Press of Pakistan (APP) said in a report.
In a separate post on social media platform X, Sharif warned protesters against taking the law into their own hands and damaging government buildings, calling on “all parties to resort to peaceful course of action for resolution of their demands.”
President Asif Ali Zardari has also urged restraint and called on stakeholders to resolve the price hike issue in Azad Kashmir through “dialogue and mutual consultation,” Pakistani state media said, reporting on a meeting between the president and a delegation of members of the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Legislative Assembly who called on him in Islamabad.
“The President said political parties, state institutions and the people of AJK should act responsibly so that hostile elements could not exploit the situation to their benefit,” the Radio Pakistan broadcaster reported.
“The President highlighted that the demands of the people of AJK should be addressed as per law. He said that he would take up the grievances of the people of AJK with Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif to find a way out of the current situation.”
