ISLAMABAD: Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif has urged the Jammu Kashmir Joint Awami Action Committee (JKJAAC) to withdraw its call for an indefinite “lockdown” in Azad Kashmir, a senior member of Sharif’s party said on Sunday.
The JKJAAC has laid a 38-point charter of demands before the Azad Kashmir government, which includes removal of perks of the ruling elites, ending 12 seats in the Azad Jammu and Kashmir Assembly reserved for Kashmiri migrants who came from the Indian-side of the territory, and royalty for hydel power projects in Azad Kashmir.
The committee has organized several protests in Azad Kashmir in recent years to demand resolution of public issues, some of which have even turned violent. In Nov. last year, the JKJAAC had staged a similar protest that continued for days and ended after assurances by the AJK government to meet their demands.
The action committee this year issued a call for an indefinite lockdown in Azad Kashmir starting Sept. 29, which prompted members of Sharif’s Pakistan Muslim League-Nawaz (PML-N) party from Pakistan and Azad Kashmir to hold consultations to defuse the demonstration that may continue for days if not weeks.
“’I will reach Pakistan within next two days’,” Mushtaq Minhas, a member of Sharif’s PML-N party, quoted the Pakistan premier as telling him at their meeting in London. “The prime minister said, ‘We will contact the Joint Action Committee, I will have its representatives invited’.”
Minhas said the prime minister promised to resolve the issues faced by all the Kashmiri people, not just the joint action committee.
“Whatever issues are being faced by the Kashmiris, he will, God willing, play his role regarding their resolution,” he added.
The development came amid reports of suspension of Internet and mobile phone services in Azad Kashmir.
Services were “closed on the direction of MoI [Pakistani ministry of interior],” Pakistan Telecommunication Authority spokesperson Zaibun Nisa told Arab News on Sunday.
In May 2024, at least three protesters and a police officer were killed and several others wounded in days of clashes between demonstrators demanding subsidies on wheat flour and electricity and law enforcement in Azad Kashmir, according to officials.
The protests were called off after Pakistan announced $83 million subsidies and prompted the regional government to notify a reduction in prices of wheat flour and electricity.
The Himalayan territory of Kashmir has been divided between Pakistan and India since their independence from British rule in 1947. Both sides claim it in full but rule in part and have fought multiple wars over the region.
The protest in Azad Kashmir comes days after demonstrations demanding greater political autonomy in Ladakh, Indian-administered Kashmir turned violent in the sparsely populated, high-altitude region bordering China and Pakistan.
New Delhi blamed the unrest on “provocative speeches” by prominent activist Sonam Wangchuk, who had been on a hunger strike demanding either full federal statehood for Ladakh or constitutional protections for its tribal communities, land and fragile environment.
Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s government split Ladakh off from Indian-administered Kashmir in 2019, imposing direct rule on both. New Delhi has yet to fulfil its promise to include Ladakh in the “Sixth Schedule” of India’s constitution, which allows people to make their own laws and policies.
