The catastrophic terrorist attacks in Mumbai and a series of grenade attacks on tourists in Srinagar have pushed to the background another round of farcical elections in the area of Pakistan occupied Kashmir (PoK) referred to, with supreme irony, as Azad (Free) Jammu & Kashmir (AJK) by Islamabad. The elections of July 11 to the ‘8th Azad Jammu & Kashmir Legislative Assembly' were meant to be an opportunity for the approximately 2.42 million electorate of the area to exercise their voting rights. However, the conduct of elections in the PoK over the years (the first elections were held in 1970, followed by in 1975, 1985, 1990, 1991, 1996 and 2001) have turned out to be no more than a façade over the discrimination and coercion that marks governance in the region. Professor M.A.R.K. Khaleeque, spokesman for the PoK based All Parties National Alliance (APNA) notes, "These elections are no different to the ones held in the past in POK. In Pakistan occupied Kashmir, democratic institutions have always remained in the subordination of the military, the bureaucracy and its agencies. And, this will continue."
The elections were held for the 49-seat Assembly, consisting of 29 constituencies from eight Districts of PoK, 12 constituencies meant for Jammu and Kashmir ‘refugees' dwelling in various parts of Pakistan, and eight reserved seats – five for women and one each for the Ulema-Mashaikh (religious scholars), technocrats and overseas Kashmiris.
According to the figures available from the Election Commission, a total of 369 candidates from 17 political parties as well as independent candidates, contested the polls. In the results declared on July 13, the ruling All Jammu Kashmir Muslim Conference won 20 seats, the Peoples Muslim League four, the Pakistan Peoples Party Azad Kashmir seven, the Jammu Kashmir Peoples' Party one, the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) two, while six seats were bagged by the independents. Polling in one constituency in Pakistan was cancelled by the returning officer. Voter turnout was particularly poor among the over 545,000 voters for the 12 mohajir (refugee) seats for which elections are held in Pakistan, outside the PoK areas, seats that have been traditionally and consistently manipulated by Islamabad.
The eventual outcome leaves the power equations vis-Ã -vis Muzaffarabad and Islamabad intact, with the puppet All Jammu Kashmir Muslim Conference set to form the Government again. Opposition parties have already started accusing the Pakistan government of rigging. The People's Muslim League President Barrister Sultan Mahmood Chaudhry stated that General Musharraf's claim of promoting self-Governance in PoK was hollow and lacked credibility. He alleged that ballot papers were distributed in Muslim Conference dominated constituencies without the signatures of presiding officers. Further, the 12 refugee seats have always remained crucial in deciding the outcome of the elections and political parties have accused Islamabad of rigging the elections to these seats. No information regarding the voters lists or voter turnout for these seats is available in the open source, and margins of victory are often in the few dozen. Some political parties alleged rigging of the refugee seats elections in the port city of Karachi and boycotted the elections, paving the way for two MQM candidates to win. Pakistan had refused to allow international observers to monitors the elections, leaving little confidence in the fairness of the exercise. Dr. Shabir Choudhry, the London-based Chairman of the Diplomatic Committee of the Jammu & Kashmir Liberation Front, noted: "In the past Pakistani governments did everything from behind the scenes. This time a message was clear for all those who had any interest in Azad Kashmir and with affairs of the State as a whole."
Arbitrary arrests have been carried out to prevent any form of protest. Central Secretary General of Pakistan Peoples Party Azad Kashmir, Chaudhry Mohammad Yasin was arrested on July 13 on unknown charges and taken to Kotli. Yasin said he was being punished for his loyalty to PPP Chairperson Benazir Bhutto and claimed he was winning the AJK Legislative Assembly elections by a lead of 9,000 votes, but that the results were changed overnight on the interference of an Army officer.
Dissent in the region has been systematically quelled by Pakistan over the years and this election saw the process repeated, with widespread pre-poll rigging. Prior to the elections, the PoK Election Commission rejected over a hundred nominations from ‘nationalist' political parties which refused to sign a declaration confirming PoK's accession to Pakistan. Nominations of 30 Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front (JKLF) candidates and 72 of the APNA were rejected.
According to Dr. Syed Nazir Gilani, Chairman of the International Kashmir Alliance (IKA), "The Azad Jammu and Kashmir Interim Constitution Act, 1974 (Act VIII of 1974) in its preamble exposes more than it could enhance the credibility of the political set up domiciled at Muzaffarabad. Section 4 (7) (2) which reads as ‘No person or political party in Azad 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', is a serious violation of Article 21 (3) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights and a violation of the principles in regard to elections embodied in the report of UN Secretary General A/46/609 and Corr.1 par.76." Sardar Sabir Kashmiri, Chairman of APNA, notes, "Keeping people of a particular thinking out of the elections clearly demonstrates that these are not democratic elections," and added further that, "The media has confirmed massive rigging and voting at gunpoint, and has exposed the Pakistani conspiracy in these elections."
A Pakistani spokesperson, however, claimed that Islamabad ‘played no role' in the rejection of nominations of candidates for the elections in as the region's elections were ‘determined by its own Constitution'. Pakistan-based JKLF leader Amanullah Khan, however, described the region's Constitution as a "rubber-stamp document" that had been presented as a fait accompli to the Kashmiris by the Pakistan Government.
Concerns have also been raised by international organizations like Human Rights Watch (HRW), which issued a statement on July 7, 2006, expressing apprehensions of pre-rigging and abuses in the election. The statement asserted that, in 2001, when pro-independence groups attempted to participate in the previous elections for the PoK Legislative Assembly, Pakistani authorities responded with arbitrary arrests and detention, harassment and beatings. Brad Adams, Asia Director at HRW, stated, "The electoral law undermines Kashmiris' basic political rights by barring them from seeking office if they oppose Kashmir's accession to Pakistan… Those who favor independence invite the ire of Pakistan's abusive intelligence agencies and military, and they risk being beaten and jailed." HRW expressed particular concern about the provision of the law that bars candidates who "bring into ridicule" the Pakistani military. "Under current laws, Kashmiris who have suggested that the Pakistani military mishandled earthquake relief could be disqualified from holding elected office," Adams stated, adding that "the restrictions on political participation and the harassment and persecution of Kashmiri nationalists in Azad Kashmir violate international standards on free _expression and expose the Pakistani Government's hypocrisy about Kashmir."
This ‘hypocrisy about Kashmir' is visible in the very nature of the equations that have imposed on PoK and its citizens through the 1974 Interim Constitution, which prescribes various limitation for the ‘autonomy' granted to the region. Defense, foreign affairs, security and currency are put outside the purview of the ‘autonomy'. Further, apart from the Legislative Assembly, a 14-member "AJ&K Council", has been formed and is headed by the Pakistan Prime Minister as Chairman and the "AJ&K" President as Vice-Chairman. Islamabad nominates five members to the Council from the Members of the Pakistan National Assembly and there are three ex-officio members. The Chairman, along with these federal nominees, gives the Government of Pakistan a majority in the Council as, of the 14 members, there are only six members elected through the "AJ&K" Legislative Assembly. This Council exercises wide ranging powers and, according to the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), "Pakistani officials dominate the Council and major bureaucrats occupy key decision making posts… the Chief Secretary, the Inspector-General of Police, the Accountant General and the Finance Secretary (of the region) come from Pakistan."
This dominance is not just limited to the power centers but extends to the ground level. The HRCP, in its report titled, State of Human Rights in Azad Jammu & Kashmir, in July 2004, noted that "Fundamental freedoms, such as the freedom of movement, freedom of _expression, freedom of assembly and freedom of association are often infringed in AJK under various pretenses, despite claims to the contrary by the officials." The charade of manipulated elections does little to alter these realities. As Shafqat Inqalabi, spokesman of the Balawaristan National Front, which is fighting for democratic and civil rights in the Gilgit-Baltistan region where no elections have been held since Pakistan's occupation in 1948, expressed it, "There was no election in PoK; there was only a selection of MLAs by Pakistani Government agencies and the Army."
For the Pakistani establishment, absolute control over the occupied territories is crucial on two counts. Firstly, it is imperative for the establishment to prevent any form of dissent, so that it can continue to portray before the international community that Kashmiris have been treated equally and prefer Pakistan over India. Secondly and in current terms, crucially, the terror infrastructure operated by jehadi outfits is based in these areas, and loss of absolute control over these regions would invite greater scrutiny and accountability.
The writer is a Research Associate at Institute for Conflict Management, New Delhi, India
Courtesy : South Asia Terrorism Portal
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