Daily Diary (DD) - Day 35 of 2018

2143hrs:

A lot is always happening behind the scenes, especially whenever annual events related to the Valley of Kashmir or even the State of Jammu & Kashmir are commemorated. Tomorrow is one such day, at least from the point of view of Pakistan's solidarity with the Valley of Kashmir.

This evening, it occurred to some of us that given Nawaz Sharif's planned visit to Muzaffarabad tomorrow; there may not be a more opportune time to clarify his party's position on AJK's constitutional relationship with Pakistan. The PML-N's AJK chapter is ruling here since the summer of 2016 and the public of AJK is still waiting for 'major surgery' (to use Raja Farooq Haider's words from an interview to this writer in January 2016) to the adopted Interim 'Constitutional' Act of 1974. 

While we the public in AJK engage in a 'Consensus-building' exercise, to build on the Citizen Public Opinion Survey - AJK , this is an important juncture to ascertain the level of commitment shown by the ruling political framework in AJK, towards governance and the enduring constitutional ambiguity of AJK.

It should also be understood and not forgotten that: the ruling political framework in AJK (right from election campaigning to legislation in the assembly) does not in any way question or reference the 3 most dominating questions in the citizen's mind. Namely:

1) The state's resources

2) The state's control

3) Enduring National Question (Identity/Constitutional ambiguity)

As discussed in at least one earlier post, as the citizens of this territory have to date created their own solutions to address many of the deficiencies of governance, after 70 years of adopted and interim ad-hoc-ism, they have little choice but to create their own solution.

The above points need to be intimated in the clearest of terms to the 'powers that be', in as civilised a manner as possible.