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OPINION

Self-Governance and Trans-Nationalism in Kashmir
VIJAY SAZAWAL

[Speech delivered at the National Advisory Council on South Asian Affairs (NACSAA) event at the Cosmos Club in Washington, DC. The meeting consisted of South Asian born policy experts, Washington Think Tanks, and U.S. State Department officials.]

Many observers in Jammu and Kashmir (hereafter called Kashmir) believe today that the solution to the nearly 60-year old problem may lie in self-governance. Before we explore that concept further, let us address the other subject: the fear of trans-nationalism, which actually led to the Kashmir problem in the first place.

This aspect of the Kashmir problem is not well known. That is because most of the relevant records were not available until very recently. In fact many of “political and secret department records” from 1947 that were prepared by the Commonwealth Relations Office (CRO) – now called the Foreign and Commonwealth Office – were declassified about ten years ago. The India Office Records, which used to be administered by the CRO, are now administered as Public Records in the British Library Asia, Pacific & Africa Collections based in London.

Surprisingly, not many South Asian scholars have shown much eagerness to learn from these 50-year old papers recently made available. They allow clearest view of how the Whitehall, British Military, CRO, Governor-General and Chairman of India’s National Defense Committee, British High Commissioners in New Delhi and Karachi, as well as Indian and Pakistani cabinet ministers, pondered publicly and privately on issues surrounding Kashmir before and after Kashmir was invaded in 1947. Most policy analysts have their own “pet approaches” and I have experienced that first hand in Washington when I see scholars arguing for the “same old, same old” (i.e., “India needs to do more”) solutions, when the handwriting on the wall is clear that any future solution to the Kashmir problem will be people-centric, rather than land-centric, and apply equally to both parts of Kashmir. Meanwhile, two authors that have readily drawn from newly available historical documents in London are Alistair Lamb and Chandrashekhar Dasgupta.

And what do some of the new historical papers show? Perhaps, it is the first time one explicitly see the British bureaucracy setting the markers for the British policy in the subcontinent with Philip Noel-Baker, as the Secretary of State for Commonwealth Relations, leading the charge both in defining the approach related to Kashmir’s future and in protecting British strategic interests in the subcontinent. But it was left to the British High Commissioner in Pakistan, Lawrence Grafftey-Smith, who had this to say about the Governor-General of India accepting the accession of Kashmir in a memorandum to Noel-Baker (reproduced from File L/P&S/1845 dated 29 October 1947):

Indian government’s acceptance of accession of Kashmir is the heaviest blow yet sustained by Pakistan in her struggle for existence. Strategically, the frontier of Pakistan which must be considered as requiring defense is very greatly extended since India would gain direct access to the North-West Frontier and tribal areas where infinite mischief can be made with “Pathanistan” or other slogans. Afghanistan policy will almost certainly change for the worse; and disturbances and disorders in Gilgit and the North West Frontier zone generally may excite Russian interests and appetites.1

Indeed the British administration, while being generally supportive of the accession, did believe that Indian control of the western borderlands of the princely state (and especially the western region of Jammu) would pose a grave threat to Pakistan which could lead to Balkanization of West Pakistan, and would upset their own strategic interests since at that time the Whitehall and the Pakistani government were also actively discussing a military alliance that would maintain British military presence in the north-west frontier region.

Once the Indian counter-attack began on October 27, 1947 (five days after the Pakistani army and its surrogates had launched the invasion into Kashmir), the British diplomatic and military directives were mostly focused on securing Srinagar and retaking portions of the Kashmir valley occupied by invaders, whereas the Indian army suddenly found it “difficult” to retake portions of Jammu region seized by the invading force from Pakistan. The British held all the cards: Mountbatten, not Nehru, was the head of India’s cabinet defense committee (a mistake by Nehru that is considered to be among his biggest blunders), and the military chiefs in India and Pakistan were British nationals reporting to a British supreme commander. Political directives from the Whitehall to British civil and military officers in the subcontinent were precise in stating that India should be denied full reoccupation of Maharaja’s princely state and a cease-fire should take place along a well delineated boundary that disconnected Indian Kashmir from Pakistan.

The newly declassified papers also clearly show how the British Prime Minister Atlee tricked Nehru in believing that Indian initiative to approach the United Nations (UN) on the Kashmir aggression would be followed up by vigorous effort on part of the British-led Indian Army to retake Poonch and Mirpur areas from Pakistani invaders, when in fact the British had no such plans. Indian inexperience in international diplomacy and British cunning are two of the main messages that come through in the 50-year old secret documents.

My point in all of this is that if one does not know this historical perspective, how is the one to fully comprehend why the “Bus Service” linking Indian and Pakistani portions of Kashmir has not paid the kind of immediate dividends that many observers had hoped for? In the one year since the service was initiated on April 7, 2005, only 600 people have availed of this service. Is it because it is extremely excruciating to get approval for boarding the bus (as many would have you believe) or is it simply because there are just not that many “divided families” to begin with, notwithstanding the propaganda that vested interests have unleashed?

The reality is that the line of control (LOC) is more or less a pretty clean division between various ethnic entities that make up the old princely state and that the current boundary can sustain regional stability even when its political future is questioned. As borne out by the history that includes four wars, the LOC provides military and geo-political stability in the subcontinent. Furthermore, travel across the LOC does represent a major confidence building measure (CBM) as I will explain a bit later.

Having linked the genesis of the Kashmir problem to the fear of Pashtun trans-nationalism the British believed would be unleashed if the “Frontier Gandhi” (Khan Abdul Gaffar Khan, who the British saw as being pro-India) was to have a sympathetic sponsor on the eastern borders of Pakistan’s north-west frontier province (meaning Indian Kashmir), it is the time to shift to possible solutions. One topic that is very hot these days is self-governance.

The recent introduction of the concept of “self-governance” has a bit of ironic history. It was preceded by the concept of “mutual demilitarization” and both concepts most recently were proposed by General Pervez Musharraf, the President and the Chief of Army Staff (COAS) of Pakistan. General Musharraf has already created new lexicology of political terms by redefining democracy, the rule of law and the freedom of press in Pakistan. So it was only natural that he would redefine other equally pertinent terms to suit to his brand of governance.

On October 8, 2005, parts of Pakistani-Administered Kashmir, especially around Muzaffarabad, were subjected to a violent earthquake, and the loss of life and property was not only immense, but also well beyond Pakistani’s ability to manage. There were reports that many Kashmiri terrorist camps in Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) were destroyed along with Jihadi warriors occupying those training camps.

As if to dispel the hopes of optimists, terrorists struck with vengeance in New Delhi on October 29, 2005, at multiple shopping malls, killing 62 people and wounding over 200. Indian security officials connected the outrage to operatives belonging to the Laskar-e-Toiba (LeT), an organization declared by the U.S. to be a foreign terrorist organization (FTO). The LeT is based in Lahore, Pakistan, and since being listed as FTO has conducted its operations under the name of Jamaat-ud-Dawa (JuD). It would be only natural for General Musharraf to create a convenient diversion to turn the focus away from the LeT which is known to have close links with the Pakistan’s Military Inter-Services Intelligence (ISI).

That is exactly what happened two days later on October 31, 2005. Popularly called the “Iftar Diplomacy,” since the General has a history of making dramatic announcements in his first meeting with the Press after Ramadan, the General proposed that both India and Pakistan should demilitarize on their respective sides of Kashmir. Taken to task by India for indulging in public grandstanding rather than serious bilateral diplomacy, the General quietly retreated to prepare for another weighty announcement at the next opportune moment.

He did not have to wait long. In a meeting with visiting All Party Hurriyat Conference (APHC) leaders from Srinagar on January 5, 2006, General Musharraf brought up the issue of self-governance. The press quoted him saying that, “For any solution to Kashmir to be durable, it has to be in accordance with wishes of Kashmiri people. I hope that India would respond positively to Pakistan’s proposal to demilitarize the disputed Himalayan region and grant it self-governance.”

The Kashmiri visitors, who have accumulated considerable wealth for themselves and their clans while clamoring for independence on the Indian side of Kashmir, were quick to pick up the new mantra. Mirwaiz Umer Farooq, the leader of the visiting separatist delegation chimed in by saying that, “Proposal for self-governance in Kashmir should be addressed,” though he could not say then or later what exactly was meant by “self-governance,” considering that Indian Kashmir is governed by locally elected officials who are predominantly Kashmiri Muslim politicians and administrators and the State enjoys (relatively speaking) a great degree of political autonomy within India.

I subsequently participated in a Voice of America (VOA) Urdu program that brought together South Asian political analysts from the US, Kashmir, India and Pakistan. No one could even guess what General Musharraf meant by self-governance during that discussion. I suggested that since the General does not feel any need for improvement on his side of Kashmir, it may be that General Musharraf’s models of self-governance were the political instruments of governance in either the Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) or the Northern Areas (NA). Let us examine those models and try to see if we can come up with General Musharraf’s definition of self-governance.

The two areas of Pakistan Administered Kashmir – AJK and NA – follow differing models of governance. Areas of Gilgit and Baltistan were separated from the rest of the Pakistani held territory and were directly ruled by a Political Agent, a system that was in place during the colonial rule. The AJK, on the other hand, had a Presidential form of government, but until 1970 the President of AJK was appointed and dismissed by Pakistani officials. The first legislative assembly of AJK was established in 1971. It passed the “Interim Constitution of Azad Kashmir Act, 1974,” that introduced a parliamentary system of governance by creating the AJK Legislative Assembly (“Lower House”) and the AJK Council (“Upper House”). The Legislative Assembly currently has 49 seats and the Council is comprised of 14 members. Superficially, it looks like a good working architecture.

That is until you look into the details. The AJK Council is chaired by the Prime Minister of Pakistan and its Vice-Chairman is the President of AJK. The Prime Minister of Pakistan appoints five members of the Council among federal ministers and members of the National Assembly (all Pakistanis), The Prime Minister of AJK is an ex-officio member and the rest are selected from the AJK Assembly.

In the 49 seat Assembly, 41 are elected directly with 12 of those seats (30%) assigned to “refugees settled outside of AJK”, and the remaining 8 elected indirectly (5 reserved for women, 1 each for religious scholar, technocrat and an overseas expatriate). The 12 Mohajir seats based mostly in Karachi, Lahore, Rawalpindi and Peshawar usually tilt the political balance in the AJK politics, and there are times when some “desirable candidates” (desirable to the Pakistani military-supported establishment) who may face harsh prospects in AJK safely get elected from one of the Mohajir seats.

Laws passed by the AJK Council do not have to be approved by the AJK Assembly, and they do not need the assent of the President of AJK. However, laws passed by the AJK Assembly have to be approved by the Council and require Presidential assent. In reality the AJK Council is “managed” by the Federal Ministry of Kashmir Affairs and is so closely associated with the Pakistani government that most AJK citizens believe the Council probably meets in Islamabad since it is practically invisible in Muzaffarabad. The majority of the AJK citizens are mostly ignorant about workings of the AJK Council that controls almost all official business and laws that affect daily lives of its people.

AJK just conducted an election for the Assembly on July 11, 2006. The prospect of winning various Mohajir seats attracted the Muttahida Qaumi Movement (MQM), the Muttahida Majlis-e-Amal (MMA), and the People’s Muslim League (PML) to participate in the AJK elections, in addition to regular players, namely, the Muslim Conference (MC) and the Pakistan People’s party (PPP). Candidates from political parties that question Pakistani claims on Kashmir were disqualified. Amid allegations of rigging, MC won 19 seats, PPP won 7 seats, PML won 4 seats, MQM won 2 seats, and the rest of the contested seats are scattered among independents and minor parties. In most parliamentary institutions the legislative body is intended to be pluralistic so as not to imply the tyranny of the majority. Yet, the Islamabad establishment is taking no chances and the Prime Minister, the President, the Speaker and the Deputy Speaker all belong to the same party (MC) which enjoys full confidence of General Musharraf.

If the polity of Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) is a shining example of self-governance, the self-governance in the Northern Areas (NA) is worthy of a gold medal.

The NA are officially known as Gilgit and Baltistan. Following the cease-fire between India and Pakistan, the Pakistani government “negotiated” an instrument of governance within the Pakistan-Administered Kashmir in April 1949. The is known as the “Karachi Pact” and should not be confused with the “Karachi Agreement” signed on July 18, 1949 between India and Pakistan under auspices of the United Nations Commission for India and Pakistan.

The Karachi Pact was signed by Nawab Mushtaq Gurmani, representing the Government of Pakistan, Sardar Ibrahim Khan, representing the Azad Kashmir government, and Choudhry Ghulam Abbas, representing the MC. Two interesting observations are of interest. First, no representative from the NA participated in this Pact and yet the deal was made to put all affairs of the NA under the control of the “Political Agent” assigned by the Government of Pakistan. Second, the Karachi Pact may not be an official document after all. Sardar Ibrahim Khan stated in a public gathering in London (in front of Dr. Shabir Choudhry and others) that he did not sign any such agreement. Indeed, my colleague Khalid Hasan of the Daily Times (Lahore), who once used to be part of the Pakistani political establishment, has more than once mentioned that the “so-called Karachi Agreement is of doubtful legality” and “no copy of this Agreement exists in the government records.” And yet it is true that the matters of life and death in the NA were once decided by a mere Joint Secretary in Pakistan’s Ministry of Kashmir Affairs.

In practice very Pakistani government since 1949 has treated the NA as a colony of Pakistan, although some Pakistani officials after 1970 have claimed that these areas are a part of Pakistan. I say this because for many years people in the NA were denied not only the right of franchise, but also the right of legal recourse to courts either in Pakistan or AJK. In effect, the people of the NA were denied their basic human rights by politicians and military rulers in Pakistan while the same leaders were clamoring for wars of liberation to annex Indian Kashmir.

Even though it was as early as in 1972 that the AJK Assembly passed a resolution demanding the return of the NA from Pakistani direct control to AJK (this and many similar appeals were simply ignored by successive Pakistani governments), it was not until 1993 that the full bench of the AJK High Court passed a verdict that the administrative system of the NA is arbitrary, and its governance should be handed over to the AJK government.

The Pakistan government challenged this order in the “AJK Supreme Court,” which came forth with a compromise decision in 1994, holding that “the verdict we reach is that the NA are part of the J&K State but not part of AJK as defined by the Interim Constitution Act of 1974.” The Pakistani government received an assuring nod that it can continue its policy of isolating the NA from AJK and maintain its direct authority over Gilgit and Baltistan.

However, the 1994 verdict did bring changes in the federal administration of the NA. The Pakistani government issued a “Northern Areas Council Legal Framework Order (Schedule-II)” in October 1994, which created a Northern Areas Executive Council (NAEC), a 26-member body for which elections were held in October 1994, with two major caveats.

The first catch was that only national political parties of Pakistan, but not of AJK, could participate in these elections. The second catch was that no bill passed by the NAEC could become law unless signed by the “Chief Executive,” the trusted Federal Minister for Kashmir Affairs. So the NAEC had no legislative authority and served more as an advisory council.

In March 1995, it was announced that members of the NAEC would receive same status and privileges as members of the Federally Administered Tribal Areas (FATA). While I share the visions of FATA areas being a haven for Taliban and sundry Mujahideen fighters, the reality is that the NA is populated by some of the most beautiful, docile and friendly people in the entire universe, not just in Kashmir, who have weathered considerable injustice with mostly quiet dignity for a very long time.

The landmark decision in 1999 by the Supreme Court of Pakistan, directing Pakistan’s government to undertake new steps to improve legislative, administrative and legal rights of the people of NA has led to some improvements (primarily establishing an appellate court in Gilgit which is headed by a government official rather than a judge) but still leaves a lot to be desired. The advisory body NAEC was slightly enlarged and renamed as the Northern Area Legislative Council (NALC) and given minor legislative powers on local matters including local taxes. The changes appear to be cosmetic because in the elections held since, the electoral process has remained unchanged – AJK parties are disallowed participation and the Chief Executive of the Council continues to be Pakistan’s Federal Minister for Kashmir Affairs. It is no surprise that the NALC has not imposed any local taxes (some doubt if the body has any legislative authority) as the administration has provided no locally managed mechanism for tax collection.

In October 2002, Pakistani government loosened its direct grip on the NA a bit by giving NALC authority related to postings and transfers of lower-tier government employees, which in reality is executed by the Chief Secretary assigned from Pakistan to the NA. In order to motivate Pakistani bureaucrats to take postings in the NA, the chief secretary of the NA now receives same wages and status as chief secretaries of other provinces of Pakistan.

As if that was not enough to remind ordinary citizens of NA that they are a colony of Pakistan, the NA continues to be governed under the Frontier Crime Regulations (FCRs) – a relic of British colonialism – that is imposed in the FATA. The law requires people to seek and receive prior permission from the Police before traveling from their home towns to any other areas, even inside the NA. It comes as no surprise that many political activists in the NA are demanding either integration with AJK, or complete independence from Pakistan or, or as is the case with the Balawaristan National Front (BNF) for a “Balawaristan” which includes Gilgit, Baltistan and adjoining areas. The British, it seems, were right about the fears of trans-nationalism on the western frontiers of the princely state.

The dismal record of Pakistan in denying any political and legislative autonomy to its side of Jammu and Kashmir is a national shame. But for its leaders to preach on the joys of self-governance to others is outright deception and simply reflects on the kind of duplicity that is a trade-mark of most military dictatorships. I am not happy saying this but that is a fact. My father used to say, “If you speak one truth, you will have avoided a hundred lies.” The people of the AJK and the NA have to face those lies every day.

Let me leave you on a positive note as I close with the subject of CBM’s related to the “Bus Service” between two sides of divided Kashmir. As I mentioned previously, there are not many divided families to begin with and most are in the Jammu region where the (Poonch-Rawalkot) bus service across the LOC has just begun. The true value in the LOC crossing points, however, is in promoting trade and commerce across the region. So the “Bus Service” needs to be augmented by the “Truck Service” before full potential of the cross-border crossings can be realized.

Stability and peace in the Kashmir region is not only feasible but also possible. It involves cessation of all terrorist acts, political liberalization (particularly in Pakistan Administered Kashmir), better governance, and increased trade across the LOC border. There is no “silver bullet” and it would greatly help if my colleagues would stop wasting their energy on redrawing borders in Kashmir. Areas that lack self-governance should get it. Areas that have self-governance should strive for better governance. Once that happens, trans-nationalism in Kashmir will take a whole new meaning.

1 “War and Diplomacy in Kashmir 1947-48,” C. Dasgupta, Sage Publications, 2002.

The writer is a Director and Past-President of Indo-American Kashmir Forum, Maryland, US.

Courtesy : Indo-American Kashmir Forum

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