CAN INDIA WRITE OFF THE ‘AZAD KASHMIR’ and ‘PoK’ REGIONS?

TIME FOR CONSTITUTIONAL AMENDMENTS & FULL RECLAIM OF PoK

There is the region of the so-called ‘Azad Kashmir’, the Mirpur- Poonch (Punjabi) region. It even has a puppet ‘President’, ‘Prime Minister’ and ‘Assembly’. And there is the region of Gilgit- Skurd-Baltistan occupied by Pakistan directly, and which are parts of the state of Jammu and Kashmir under the Dogras, which acceded to India. There are Muslims living there who are exploited by Pakistan. Pakistan has a step-motherly relation with the people in this region. Pakistan needs to pretend to the world that this ‘Azad Kashmir’ is a creation of Kashmiris, so it wields power on it but does not develop it.

If Muslims in India are not rebelling loudly against Pakistan on this, it is only because the Indian media has failed to report on the plights of the Muslims in ‘Azad Kashmir’ under Pakistan’s rule. In Pakistan, the Muslims of ‘Azad Kashmir’ are treated with contempt, and are called ‘hataoes’. The region is underdeveloped, there are no hospitals there, no schools, no progress! The same is true in Dardistan and Baltistan, misruled by Pakistan by factoring that region into five divisions: Gilgit, Skardu, Chilas, Gohkoch and Khalpo, drawing a leaf from the British ‘divide and rule’ technique.

The Muslims of these regions remain backward, and have started demanding to secede from Pakistan. Ishtiaq Ali Mehkri, journalist with ‘Dawn’ reports from Karachi, (December 1, 2000) that for the last many years, August 14, the Pakistani Independence Day, has been marked as ‘Deprivation Day’ by the people of Gilgit-Baltistan. Pakistan’s flag has been set on fire at several places.

In May 1999, the Pakistani Supreme Court ruled: "Northern Areas are a disputed territory and the Government of Pakistan has no claim whatsoever over it." Major (retd.) Hussain Shah of the Muttahida Qaumi Party says, "Pakistan can no more exploit our patriotism". Unless Pakistan recognizes their fundamental rights, he says the people will have to "explore new avenues." Malika Baltistani of the ‘Gilgit-Baltistan National Alliance’ says, "My political party is seriously thinking of armed and political assistance from whoever it may be, to get rid of Pakistan’s unjust rule". She openly says that if their demand for autonomy and fundamental rights were denied, the people of the area "would not mind calling it a day with Pakistan." At a recent press conference in Karachi, she went to the extent of saying that they would "go with any nation or country that ensured them their basic rights."

PTI report (Times of India, December 4, 2000) gives us further evidence about Pakistan’s neglect and exploitation of the Muslims in Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir. A senior leader of PoK from the Rawalakote area Mohammed Mumtaz Khan, says about PoK "The area lags by ages behind Jammu and Kashmir, where development had moved at almost the same pace as that of other cities in India." Khan says that even the medical facilities in PoK were "pitiable and god forbid, if an epidemic broke in there, it could prove to be a catastrophe."

Founding father of the Jammu and Kashmir Liberation Front, Nazir- ul-Haq, has said that Pakistan has neglected the area and has only used the region for its own vested interests. Nazir-ul-Haq complains about the slow development pace in PoK and said Pakistan has even illegally annexed the northern areas including Gilgit and Baltistan. Disputing the claims of militant groups like Lashker-e-Toiba (LeT) and Harkat-ul-Mujahideen, Haq Said "These groups are determined neither to allow peace to return to Jammu and Kashmir nor to PoK as they would be jobless... But has anyone asked them why are you spreading terror. Islam religion disapproves of it." He said that in the name of jehad no one could continue to harm the interests of the people since "This is the most heinous crime even as per Islam, whose warriors they claim to be."

About the continued opposition to giving peace a chance in the state by Pakistan, another PoK leader, Mumtaz Khan flays Pakistan for gross violation of human rights in PoK and northern areas. Khan has been raising his voice against these violations in the United Nations Human Rights Conference. Khan draws attention to the fact that compared to the rest of Jammu and Kashmir, PoK lags decades behind. Mumtaz Khan laments that "for so many years, Pakistan has not even implemented its own Supreme Court order (referred above) which said northern areas including Gilgit and Baltistan were a part of disputed Jammu and Kashmir and should be restored back...Pakistan had completely spoiled the area by setting up training camps for militants."

Abdul Rouf Ganai, Co-convener of the Jammu-Kashmir Nationalists Front lamented recently (PTI report in ‘The Asian Age’, Nov.27, 2000) that "Gujjars, Bakerwals and Pahari speaking Muslims living in the Poonch, Rajouri and Doda districts are disillusioned with the ideas of ‘Azadi’ and ‘merger with Pakistan’. They feel ‘cheated’ and ‘used’ as cannon fodder in the name of Islam".

It is a gross miscalculation that the Muslims in India will remain insensitive to the sufferings of the people in ‘Azad Kashmir’ and in other parts of Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir. There are more Muslims in India than in Pakistan, and they enjoy a far higher development rate in India than Muslims anywhere else. They have opted to live in India accepting India as their home, and many of them have served the country nobly by giving their life for it. It would be a very big mistake both for Hindus and Muslims in India to write-off the regions of ‘Azad Kashmir’ and ‘Pakistan-occupied-Kashmir’. The Skardu, Baltistan, Kargil, Ladakh region provide a geo-strategic grip on the Indian subcontinent, and it is very important that India secures it.

However, it is very important to realize that abrogation of Article 370 will achieve nothing unless the State is developed, but without the abrogation of Article 370 the State will neither attract human talent nor any investment. The obvious solution then lies in destroying terrorism sponsored by Islamic fundamentalism in the entire state of Jammu and Kashmir, and making the entire state accessible for settlements by all Indians. As a FIRST step, Article 370 must be abrogated, and demographic rationalization in J&K must be brought about to restore ‘non-Muslim’-‘Muslim’ ratio to what it was (3:7) at the time of independence. In that ratio, settlements of both Hindus and Muslims, of Kashmiri or non-Kashmiri origin, should be made throughout the state of J&K, and not concentrated in just one region.

Indian Muslims must not only cooperate with the demographic rationalization that is required, but they must actually catalyze and aid it to build a strong homogeneous united India. Article 370 applies to the J&K state as it existed at the time of the instrument of accession, and includes Pakistan-occupied- Kashmir.