Daily Diary (DD) - Day 188 of 2020

2300hrs:

The pandemic will continue to stunt us in AJK but perhaps more worrying is the recurring inability of the AJK government to negotiate public interest with the public. As it is the public at large that is paying the price for being by-passed by the British Indian partition plan in 1947, it is they who must take the initiative of navigating themselves out of the 'dispute' thrust on them.

While the international community at large stonewalls or non-platforms the internal narrative of the territory of J & K, there are multiple barriers at both regional level (India and Pakistan) and their local governance set-ups in the respective parts of the territory they occupy.

Loyalty tests work all the way from top - international community level - down to the local government level throughout Jammu Kashmir & Allied. 

Our local government context is the AJK government which prevents us from addressing Pakistan directly but also doesn't offer any practical solutions for the rapidly increasing demands of the AJK public.

There's a long list of public interest dilemmas brewing in AJK:

1) Economy / Environment 

- Multiple examples of hydro power generation by Pakistan in AJK without following due procedure. 

Public activism:

- Save Rivers Save Lives Movement in Muzaffarabad continuously stonewalled over past few years.

2) Health 

- Absence of hospitals, staff, equipment

Public activism:

- Young doctors from throughout AJK have been on strike since the 20th of June and are camped outside the Assembly Secretariat in Muzaffarabad. They were even arrested on the 2nd of July, when apparently a visit to Muzaffarabad by a senior WHO (World Health Organisation) representative got the AJK government and particularly their handlers in the Pakistani government nervous about being embarrassed.

Here's some visuals of them being arrested:



The 'Young Doctor's Association' (YDA) remain unconvinced by government gestures to fulfill their just demands in public interest.

What are their demands:

1) To have similar facilities of large hospitals with accompanying infrastructure in AJK as are available in the provinces (of Pakistan).

2) An increase in the amount of available (qualified) doctors within hospitals in AJK.

3) The availability of free medicine within hospitals in AJK

4) The availability of CT (Computerized Tomography) Scan and MRI (Magnetic Resonance Imaging) equipment within hospitals in AJK.

5) The availability of Other basic laboratory tests such as APG (Ambulatory Patient Group) within hospitals in AJK

6) The availability of universal healthcare in AJK and a decrease in referrals to Rawalpindi and Islamabad (in Pakistan).


7) To make the rights of doctors in AJK at par with doctors throught the provinces (of Pakistan).

Here's a frame of them inside their police cell:

- Meanwhile, the public of Trarkhel subdivision are trying to march to Muzaffarabad in shrouds and are being denied passage by the local administration (today).

Here's a reasonably well summarised overview of matters of the State in AJK:



It should also be mentioned that I wrote a report on the public interest deficiencies of Trarkhel on Day 299 of 2018 which corresponded to the 26th of October 2018.

.....