by Nilesh Kunwar

The Façade

Islamabad wants the world to believe that the illegally occupied part of J&K under its control is the epitome of freedom and prosperity, and to keep up this façade, it refers to Pakistan occupied Jammu and Kashmir (PoK) as ‘Azad (free) Kashmir’. Keeping up appearances is a costly affair, but Pakistan's Kashmir obsession is so intense that despite being cash strapped it doesn’t think twice when it comes to paying to keep its ‘Azad Kashmir’ falsehood alive.

In July 2011, Syed Ghulam Nabi Fai, a US-based Pakistani-American who was running an organisation called Kashmiri American Council (KAC) was arrested for conspiracy and tax evasion. US Attorney Neil MacBride told the court that "Mr. Fai is accused of a decades-long scheme with one purpose – to hide Pakistan's involvement behind his efforts to influence the U.S. government's position on Kashmir.”

MacBride went on to reveal that Fai’s “handlers in Pakistan allegedly funnelled millions through the Kashmir Center to contribute to U.S. elected officials, fund high-profile conferences, and pay for other efforts that promoted the Kashmiri cause in favour of Pakistan to decision makers in Washington." Islamabad promptly lodged a protest, issuing a demarche to the US Embassy in Islamabad and accusing Washington of running a slander campaign against Pakistan.

Just five months later, Islamabad was forced to eat the humble pie when the KAC chief pleaded guilty of secretly receiving a whopping $3.5 million through Pakistan army’s spy agency Inter Services Intelligence (ISI) for lobbying to influence US policy on Kashmir. Unfortunately, Islamabad didn’t learn any lesson from this extraordinarily embarrassing incident.

In 2022, PoK again came into focus when US Congresswoman Ilhan Omar made a four-day-visit to this region. Islamabad was particularly overjoyed as she openly endorsed Pakistan’s Kashmir stance by saying that "On the question of Kashmir, we held a hearing in the foreign affairs committee (of Congress) to look at the reports of human rights violations."

Furthermore by telling reporters that "I don't believe that it (Kashmir) is being talked about to the extent it needs to in Congress but also with the administration," Omar unambiguously endorsed Islamabad’s delusional demand for third party intervention. As she held talks with the then Pakistan Prime Minister Shehbaz Sharif and Minister of State for Foreign Affairs Hina Rabbani Khar, , this visit, needless to say, came as a shot in the arm for Pakistan’s Kashmir narrative.

Unfortunately, the euphoria was short lived. Annual financial disclosures filed with the U.S. House of Representatives confirmed that the Pakistani government in Islamabad had entirely sponsored Omar’s trip including expenses for food, lodging, and local facilities.

Current Crisis

The ongoing public unrest in PoK which has claimed more than 20 lives has once again revealed how the authorities rely on brute force to intimidate people even when they are making the justified demand of ending manipulative politics. The reason for this high-handedness is obvious- Islamabad doesn’t want to let go of its control over the PoK government and this it does by filling the 12 seats in PoK assembly reserved for people of J&K migrants with its proxies.

Using anti-terrorism legislation to proscribe Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC), a grass root non-political civil society coalition comprising ordinary citizens like traders, lawyers and students, which is spearheading the peaceful movement for securing basic rights of people and good governance in PoK is an unmistakable sign of both Islamabad’s desperation and paranoia. There can therefore be no two views that despite Islamabad’s tall claims, all’s not well in so-called ‘Azad Kashmir’.

This also explains why Islamabad is spending so much time and money in attempting to mislead the international community into believing that things in PoK are hunky dory.

PoK Woes

In its 2006 annual report on PoK, Human Rights Watch (HRW) had highlighted the fundamental contradiction in Islamabad’s duplicitous Kashmir narrative. It states, “Successive Pakistani governments have asserted that Kashmir’s political future must be determined in accordance with the wishes of its people. Yet its own constitutional provisions preclude all political choices to Kashmiris except to support its accession to Pakistan.”

Two decades later, Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRPC) has echoed the same sentiment by condemning the ban on JAAC by stating that "proscribing popular movements invariably risks narrowing democratic space." This seminal observation aptly sums up the situation since the current protests in PoK isn’t something new.

In December 2024, while addressing a group of protesters in Bradford, UK, Chairman of the Jammu Kashmir National Independence Alliance (JKNIA) Mahmood Kashmiri expressed solidarity with JAAC and highlighted that “We are not asking for charity or alms.

We are simply asking for our rights–our resources should be placed in our control.” This statement hits the nail on the head. Though PoK has abundant resources, the same aren’t available to its people, and equitable sharing of water and electricity produced in PoK being amongst the most contentious issues.

Self Created Mess

The demands of JAAC pertain to basic economic and governance issues. Unfortunately, though reasonable and completely justified these have not been addressed by Islamabad with the seriousness it merits, and the current protests in PoK are but a natural response to government apathy. The fact of the matter is that the silence of the people of PoK has been taken for granted and the Pakistan army has been treating PoK as a colony and terrorising its residents through brute force.

The lack of basic amenities adds to the misery of people living in PoK. Thanks to the proliferation of social media, information is freely available to all and people of PoK are able to see and learn for themselves what’s going on in J&K. This awareness leads to PoK citizens comparing their situation with that prevailing across the LoC and the glaring disparity in existing facilities naturally generates frustration. A few examples:

• Airport. J&K has four airports while PoK has only two
• Railway. Functional in J&K, but non-existent in PoK
• Universities. 35 in J&K- only six in PoK
• Medical Colleges. J&K has 10 medical colleges in comparison to only three in PoK
• Government Hospitals. J&K has 2812 hospitals providing free medical care, while PoK has only 23
• Infrastructure Development Funds. While the Union Territory of J&K has been allocated ₹33,127 crore for infrastructure development, PoK is estimated to have received only $600–700 million)
• Financial Allocation & GDP. J&K gets nearly five times more funds than PoK.

Prognosis

The people of PoK have endured institutionalised marginalisation by Islamabad for too long and are no longer willing to remain silent spectators. Government apathy has forced them to take to the streets and military brutality has only further strengthened their resolve to stand up for their rights. The writing on the wall is clear- people of PoK will no longer accept being treated as second-class citizens.

However, since neither Islamabad nor Rawalpindi seems inclined to address the genuine grievances of PoK residents, the situation is likely to get worse in the future. As Field Marshal Asim Munir oversees the country’s Kashmir policy and use of force against protesters and proscribing JAAC is his brainchild, he must not only bear responsibility for the ugly situation he has created but also make necessary amends.

Nilesh Kunwar is a retired Indian Army Officer who has served in Jammu & Kashmir, Assam, Nagaland and Manipur. He is a keen ‘Kashmir-Watcher,’ and after retirement is pursuing his favourite hobby of writing for newspapers, journals and think-tanks. Views expressed above are the author's own