Yet Another Farce

The elections of July 11 to the ‘8th Azad Jammu &Kashmir Legislative Assembly' were meant to be an opportunity for theapproximately 2.42 million electorate of the area to exercise their votingrights. However, the conduct of elections in the PoK over the years (the firstelections were held in 1970, followed by in 1975, 1985, 1990, 1991, 1996 and2001) have turned out to be no more than a façade over the discrimination andcoercion 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. InPakistan occupied Kashmir, democratic institutions have always remained in thesubordination of the military, the bureaucracy and its agencies. And, this willcontinue."

The elections were held for the 49-seat Assembly,consisting of 29 constituencies from eight Districts of PoK, 12 constituenciesmeant 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 ElectionCommission, a total of 369 candidates from 17 political parties as well asindependent candidates, contested the polls. In the results declared on July 13,the ruling All Jammu Kashmir Muslim Conference won 20 seats, the Peoples MuslimLeague four, the Pakistan Peoples Party Azad Kashmir seven, the Jammu KashmirPeoples' Party one, the Muttahida Quami Movement (MQM) two, while six seats werebagged by the independents. Polling in one constituency in Pakistan wascancelled by the returning officer. Voter turnout was particularly poor amongthe over 545,000 voters for the 12 mohajir (refugee) seats for whichelections are held in Pakistan, outside the PoK areas, seats that have beentraditionally and consistently manipulated by Islamabad.

The eventual outcome leaves the powerequations vis-à-vis Muzaffarabad and Islamabad intact, with the puppetAll Jammu Kashmir Muslim Conference set to form the government again. Oppositionparties have already started accusing the Pakistan government of rigging. ThePeople's Muslim League President Barrister Sultan Mahmood Chaudhry stated thatGeneral Musharraf's claim of promoting self-governance in PoK was hollow andlacked credibility. He alleged that ballot papers were distributed in MuslimConference dominated constituencies without the signatures of presidingofficers.

Further, the 12 refugee seats have always remained crucialin deciding the outcome of the elections and political parties have accusedIslamabad of rigging the elections to these seats. No information regarding thevoters 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 partiesalleged rigging of the refugee seats elections in the port city of Karachi andboycotted the elections, paving the way for two MQM candidates to win. Pakistanhad refused to allow international observers to monitors the elections, leavinglittle confidence in the fairness of the exercise. Dr. Shabir Choudhry, theLondon-based Chairman of the Diplomatic Committee of the Jammu & KashmirLiberation Front, noted: "In the past Pakistani governments did everythingfrom behind the scenes. This time a message was clear for all those who had anyinterest in Azad Kashmir and with affairs of the state as a whole."

Arbitrary arrests have been carried out to prevent any formof protest. Central Secretary General of Pakistan Peoples Party Azad Kashmir,Chaudhry Mohammad Yasin was arrested on July 13 on unknown charges and taken toKotli. Yasin said he was being punished for his loyalty to PPP ChairpersonBenazir Bhutto and claimed he was winning the AJK Legislative Assembly electionsby a lead of 9,000 votes, but that the results were changed overnight on theinterference of an Army officer.

Dissent in the region has beensystematically quelled by Pakistan over the years and this election saw theprocess repeated, with widespread pre-poll rigging. Prior to the elections, thePoK Election Commission rejected over a hundred nominations from ‘nationalist'political parties which refused to sign a declaration confirming PoK's accessionto 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 theInternational Kashmir Alliance (IKA), "The Azad Jammu and Kashmir InterimConstitution Act, 1974 (Act VIII of 1974) in its preamble exposes more than itcould 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 Kashmirshall be permitted to propagate against, or take part in activities prejudicialor detrimental to, the ideology of the State's accession to Pakistan', is aserious violation of Article 21 (3) of the Universal Declaration of Human Rightsand a violation of the principles in regard to elections embodied in the reportof 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 ofthe elections clearly demonstrates that these are not democraticelections," and added further that, "The media has confirmed massiverigging and voting at gunpoint, and has exposed the Pakistani conspiracy inthese elections."

A Pakistani spokesperson, however, claimed that Islamabad‘played no role' in the rejection of nominations of candidates for theelections in as the region's elections were ‘determined by its ownConstitution'. Pakistan-based JKLF leader Amanullah Khan, however, described theregion's Constitution as a "rubber-stamp document" that had beenpresented as a fait accompli to the Kashmiris by the Pakistan Government.

Concerns have also been raised byinternational organizations like Human Rights Watch (HRW), which issued astatement on July 7, 2006, expressing apprehensions of pre-rigging and abuses inthe election. The statement asserted that, in 2001, when pro-independence groupsattempted to participate in the previous elections for the PoK LegislativeAssembly, Pakistani authorities responded with arbitrary arrests and detention,harassment and beatings. Brad Adams, Asia Director at HRW, stated, "Theelectoral law undermines Kashmiris' basic political rights by barring them fromseeking office if they oppose Kashmir's accession to Pakistan… Those who favorindependence invite the ire of Pakistan's abusive intelligence agencies andmilitary, and they risk being beaten and jailed." HRW expressed particularconcern about the provision of the law that bars candidates who "bring intoridicule" the Pakistani military. "Under current laws, Kashmiris whohave suggested that the Pakistani military mishandled earthquake relief could bedisqualified from holding elected office," Adams stated, adding that"the restrictions on political participation and the harassment andpersecution of Kashmiri nationalists in Azad Kashmir violate internationalstandards on free expression and expose the Pakistani Government's hypocrisyabout Kashmir."

This ‘hypocrisy about Kashmir' isvisible in the very nature of the equations that have imposed on PoK and itscitizens through the 1974 Interim Constitution, which prescribes variouslimitation 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 fivemembers to the Council from the Members of the Pakistan National Assembly andthere are three ex-officio members. The Chairman, along with these federalnominees, gives the Government of Pakistan a majority in the Council as, of the14 members, there are only six members elected through the "AJ&K"Legislative Assembly. This Council exercises wide ranging powers and, accordingto the Human Rights Commission of Pakistan (HRCP), "Pakistani officialsdominate the Council and major bureaucrats occupy key decision making posts…the Chief Secretary, the Inspector-General of Police, the Accountant General andthe Finance Secretary (of the region) come from Pakistan."

This dominance is not just limited to the power centers butextends to the ground level. The HRCP, in its report titled, State of HumanRights in Azad Jammu & Kashmir, in July 2004, noted that"Fundamental freedoms, such as the freedom of movement, freedom ofexpression, freedom of assembly and freedom of association are often infringedin AJK under various pretenses, despite claims to the contrary by theofficials." The charade of manipulated elections does little to alter theserealities. As Shafqat Inqalabi, spokesman of the Balawaristan National Front,which is fighting for democratic and civil rights in the Gilgit-Baltistan regionwhere no elections have been held since Pakistan's occupation in 1948, expressedit, "There was no election in PoK; there was only a selection of MLAs byPakistani Government agencies and the Army."

For the Pakistani establishment, absolute control over theoccupied territories is crucial on two counts. Firstly, it is imperative for theestablishment to prevent any form of dissent, so that it can continue to portraybefore the international community that Kashmiris have been treated equally andprefer Pakistan over India. Secondly and in current terms, crucially, the terrorinfrastructure operated by jehadi outfits is based in these areas, andloss of absolute control over these regions would invite greater scrutiny andaccountability.

Saji Cherian is Research Associate, Institute for Conflict Management.Courtesy, the South Asia Intelligence Review of the South Asia Terrorism Portal