Three more Azad Jammu and Kashmir (AJK) cabinet ministers on Friday announced their resignation, with two of them calling on Prime Minister Chaudhry Anwarul Haq to resign over what they described as his “failure to safeguard the constitutional rights of Kashmiri refugees.”
Earlier this week, AJK Information Minister Pir Mazhar Saeed announced that he had resigned from his post, citing “some inevitable reasons”. However, a senior official in the AJK prime minister’s office said dawn.com that the resignation had been “received but not yet accepted.”
AJK Finance Minister Abdul Majid Khan and Food Minister Chaudhry Akbar Ibrahim announced today that they would resign at a joint press conference at the Muzaffarabad Press Club, while Sports, Youth and Culture Minister Asim Sharif Butt sent his resignation directly to the prime minister, opting to stay away from media interaction.
All three were elected on PTI tickets in the 2021 general elections from LA-45 (Valley-VI), LA-38 (Jammu-V) and LA-42 (Valley-III), constituencies reserved for Kashmiri refugees who migrated to Pakistan after 1947. However, the trio later joined the PTI defector faction led by Prime Minister Haq in 2023.
Their resignations came in protest against the agreement recently signed by a seven-member federal government committee and the Joint Awami Action Committee (JAAC), which, among other issues, addressed the contentious issue of 12 legislative assembly seats reserved for Kashmiri refugees settled across Pakistan.
Khan and Ibrahim called the JAAC an “unelected, cudgel group,” and said the agreement had effectively legitimized an “unconstitutional and morally indefensible demand, reached under pressure and without broader consultation.”
They alleged that the agreement violated the fundamental rights of thousands of Kashmiri refugees and struck at the heart of AJK’s constitutional and political framework.
They maintained that the campaign against refugee seats was a malicious move by a small group of self-styled traders and representatives pursuing narrow interests “under the guise of reforms”.
The real objective, they claimed, was not the government but the identity, representation and political recognition of the refugee community who had made immense sacrifices for Pakistan and the cause of Kashmir’s accession.
Both ministers argued that these seats were not a privilege but a historic and conscious constitutional decision, which was part of the political setup of AJK since 1947. The reserved seats, they said, symbolized the constitutional recognition of the sacrifices and long displacement endured by those who lost everything for the cause of Pakistan.
They termed the JAAC’s questioning of the existence of these seats as a denial of the pain, identity and political meaning of an entire generation exiled by their struggle for accession to Pakistan.
They said they had raised this issue with the President and Prime Minister of Pakistan in black and white, adding that they would “knock on all doors to frustrate the designs of elements bent on creating a wedge between local Kashmiris and migrants and thereby harming the cause of Kashmir.”
Khan also shared his two-page resignation letter, in which he reaffirmed his belief in the ideology of legitimate accession and integration of the State of Jammu and Kashmir with Pakistan, in accordance with the wishes of its entire population, including the 2.5 million refugees settled in Pakistan.
He said it had become “completely impossible to continue serving under the current government, which has neither effectively defended and protected the constitutional rights of Kashmiri refugees, nor shown a willingness to take responsibility for or challenge this grave constitutional violation.”
Declaring that he had no moral option but to resign from the AJK cabinet, effective today, Khan vowed to continue defending the rights of the refugees of Jammu and Kashmir and raise his voice for their rightful place in the political and constitutional structures of both AJK and Pakistan.
In his resignation letter, Ibrahim echoed similar views and stated that Prime Minister Haq had failed to stop the “illegal demand” raised by the JAAC and protect the rights of around three million occupied Jammu and Kashmir refugees based in Pakistan.
Both Khan and Ibrahim accused Prime Minister Haq of conspiring against refugee members of the legislative assembly and asked him to resign from office.
Butt, in his letter, expressed his and his constituents’ loss of confidence in the AJK government in the wake of the deal, saying he could no longer be a part of it.
Talks between the JAAC, the AJK government and federal ministers on elite privileges and reserved seats for refugees collapsed in late September.
Rival groups have since organized protests and strikes, exchanging blame for the violence that marred what began as a largely peaceful movement in AJK. The fierce clashes between protesters and law enforcement officers left at least 10 dead and dozens seriously injured in the territory.
On October 2, a federal government delegation traveled to Muzaffarabad for talks with the JAAC in a bid to end the ongoing unrest in the territory. The agreement was signed after two rounds of talks.
